HIBilArtY OF CONGRESS, 

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i UNITED STATES OP AMERICA, f 



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Outdoor Sights and Indoor Thoughts. 



Rev. J. HENDRICKSON M'CARTY, A. M. 



For vie to live is Christ, and to die is gain. — St. Paul. 
It is by Ttatnre that we live ; but by 07ir philosophy that ive live w^//.— Seneca. 
There is nothing of which men know so little as ihenusel7Jes-—C h a^mung. 
N'il desperandum, Christo dicce. •'' ■ .\ 



^^ 




CINCINNATI: ^ 

HITCHCOCK AND WALDEN. 

NEW YORK: 

NELSON AND PHILLIPS. 

1873. 



^^^p 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, 

BY HITCHCOCK & WALDEN 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



To 
||hc jhonest jMoiking ||fn and Momcn af Omenta: 

WHOSE INDUSTRY 

IS UNSURPASSED BY THAT OF ANY OTHER PEOPLE; 

WHOSE INTELLIGENCE 

IS THE SAFEGUARD OF OUR NATIONAL LIBERTIES; 

WHOSE PIETY 

IS A PROPHECY OF THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION : 

^\ii8 Valumt 
Is Affectionately Inscribed. 



THE LAUNCH. 



We once heard an eccentric minister deliver 
an address to an audience composed mainly of 
sailors, in which he described Pharaoh as being 
"the greatest fool in history." "For," said he, 
alluding to the overthrow of the Egyptian mon- 
arch and his host in the Red Sea, while pur- 
suing the Israelites, "he is the only man who 
ever attempted to go to sea on wheels P' The 
sailors quickly saw the point. 

We sincerely hope the reader will not use so 
harsh an epithet toward the author, who has 
ventured out upon the sea of authorship " on 
wheels." 

We have discarded the word Preface, and sub- 
stituted a nautical term instead, at the risk of 
mixing our metaphors. 

5 



6 THE LAUNCH. 

Our book is launched. 

We hope, through the indulgence of the kind 
readers and lenient critics, not to be wrecked 
on these waters. 

We do not forget that we set our craft afloat 
upon a treacherous sea, along whose bottom 
are the wrecks of many vessels once hopefully 
launched. 

If our bark should not prove a successful 
sailer, but go to the bottom on her first voy- 
age, we shall practice the philosophy we have 
endeavored to inculcate in our pages, and "keep 
cool," living in hope that its sunken hulk will 
some day be raised from the deep for its treasures ! 

Our self-complacency may provoke the smile, 
if not the scorn, of the reader. 

If any one shall have the patience to peruse 
these pages, we shall feel complimented ; while 
we hope our words may tend to produce, in the 
reader's mind and heart, a desire to walk in the 
way of the higher and holier life. 

It will be found to be not a learned treat- 
ise on metaphysics, but a variety of thoughts 
strung together, touching the more common 
phases of life. 



THE LAUNCH. 7 

We write for the so-called common people 
who toil in field and shop and store, but who 
are, in fact, the true nobility — 

" Who wear upon their manly brow 
The royal stamp and seal of God." 

We love to mingle with the men and women 
of this every-day life. From them we have 
learned many of our best lessons, and with them 
enjoyed many of our happiest hours. 

Hand-work and brain-work are not inconsist- 
ent with each other; and, hence, in the industrial 
walks of life are to be found some of the finest 
thinkers as well as truest lives. 

The book is written to do good. We have 
tried to say profound things superficially ; in 
other words, to dig the gold out of the deep 
strata, and scatter it upon the surface, so a child 
can gather it up. 

We might go on in this ceremony of launch- 
ing, at greater length, but deem it prudent to 
save up our material for the book itself; for it 
may be needed more in that quarter. 

Our title has in it a touch of somberness, 
growing out of the use of the word "black." 



8 THE LAUNCH. 

If the book itself is not somber, it will not 
matter about the title. 

So we give the last stroke upon the last key 
that holds our craft upon the timbers. Ms[y 
her voyages be many, and may all who prom- 
enade her decks be as happy as the little group 
who have spent so many Summer hours with 
the " Black Horse and Carryall !" 

The Author. 

Adrian, Mich., Fehmary i, 1873. 




CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

THE LAUNCH, 5 

I. The Black Horse and Carryall, . . 1 1 

II. Ideal Recreations, 26 

III. Home Life, 41 

IV. The Family on Earth and in Heaven, . . 59 
V. Labor and its Reward, ...'.. 89 

VI. The Christian Artisan, 114 

VII. Woman as a Reformer, .... 137 

VIII. Rights and Wrongs of Woman, . . .151 

IX. A Plea for the Fallen, . . . . 175 

X. Mission of the Beautiful, 190 

XL Discipline of Sorrow, 216 

XII. Accidents, ...',.... 235 

XIII. Heart Life, 245 

XIV. Thinking and Growing, 263 

XV. The Possible Man, 281 

XVI. Fading Leaves, 298 




CHAPTER I. 



Jl^e glai^Ti S-^^g^ »««! ar««v«"- 




' Religion does not censuj'e or exclude 
Unnumbered pleasures harmlessly piirsjted.^'' 

HE reader will not censure us, if we 

devote the very first chapter of this 

book to a description of our " stock in 

/ " trade ;" namely, The Black Horse and 

Carryall. 

I We are not certain that the latter name 
^ is found in any of the dictionaries ; and it 
I does not matter whether it is or not. We 
I have seen the rule laid down in some book 
1 on criticism, that in coining a word, "first 
1 let it be perspicuous ; and next, let it be in 
the tone of the language." 

The morning our new vehicle was drawn into 
the yard by the side entrance, three pairs of feet 
came running, three pairs, of hands clapped with 
joy, and three pairs of eyes looked wondrous bright. 

II 



12 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

The vehicle had been contracted for early in 
the Winter, so as to be in readiness by the time 
the roads should become dry and the weather 
warm. We did not want a toplofty buggy, with 
square box-bed, made to keep people from getting 
into it ; and with hampered seat, into which only 
two persons could possibly be crowded ; and so 
high from the ground that a step-ladder would 
always be required to make the ascent to the seat. 
Nor did we want a phaeton, however cozy one 
may be for a single pair of human beings to jog 
around town in. We wanted a something with 
a standing top, with curtains which could be 
rolled up in dry, warm weather, and rolled down 
in wet or cold weather. We wanted it strong 
enough to carry at least four persons, if need be ; 
and yet light enough for one good stout horse to 
draw it anywhere, and over any ordinary roads, 
and in all weathers. 

Our carriage-builder is a man whose round, 
ruddy face implies that he is patient with trouble- 
some customers. But our order for such a car- 
riage as we wanted seemed rather to puzzle him. 
He did not see how all these almost opposite 
qualities could be combined in one carriage. But, 
then, we have long since adopted the motto, that 
whatever ought to be done, can be done ; and 
inasmuch as there never was a time when any 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL, 1 3 

two of our family were willing to stay at home, 
while the other two were more than willing to 
go ; and as such a time never would come, in all 
probability, according to the maxim, that the only 
way we have of judging of the future is by the 
past ; and inasmuch as a common single-seated 
buggy could not carry four persons at once ; and, 
furthermore, inasmuch as we could not afford to 
keep a span, which would necessitate the employ- 
ment of a regular driver, besides incurring the 
risk of being considered aristocratic, — we ordered 
a vehicle which, in our judgment, would meet 
our wants and come within our means. Thus 
assured, our coachmaker set to work at building it. 
Now, none such had ever been made in the 
place. By and by, our friends who saw it in pro- 
cess of construction, began to inquire of us what 
it was for ? Some thought it would be a capital 
milk-wagon ; others suggested that we might 
have a feather-renovating attachment put in, and 
thus utilize time and energy. Again, others sug- 
gested the propriety of petitioning the " city 
fathers" to have the streets widened, so we could 
clear the corners easily. But we bore all these 
implied impeachments of our judgment patiently 
and hopefully. We spoke of it as our "carryall." 
The use of the word was, of course, not original 
with us, though new in the community ; for, as 



14 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

yet, no such wagon had ever rolled along the 
streets of A . 

Before bringing it home, we had spoken of 
these various suggestions of our friends occasion- 
ally, at the dinner-table, and all were anxious to 
see the thing "drag its slow length along." But 
no sooner did it stand on the beautiful grass-plat, 
than all proclaimed their satisfaction in the most 
enthusiastic language. We have a recollection 
of hearing such expressions as " splendid," " beau- 
tiful," "grand," "just the thing," "far nicer than 
I expected," etc.; such terms as women are in the 
habit of using when they wish to express sur- 
prise, or feeling, of which latter they have so 
much more than we men-folk, and know so much 
better how to express. Did you ever know a 
girl that did not call every thing that pleased her 
splendid ? 

" There is the carryall," we said to the one 
who had journeyed by our side for a score of 
years, and who stood next to us on the grass-plat. 
" What do you think of it ?" 

A smile was suggestive of the answer. Sure 
enough, there it was — the long-talked of vehicle, 
all done — varnish dry, spindles oiled, curtains 
rolled up, and in complete readiness for a ride ; 
save that, in the first place, the horse was not in 
the shafts ; and, secondly, the morning dishes 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL, 1 5 

were not washed, nor the house put in order for the 
day. The side-door of the carryall was opened, 
and in went the whole family, amused at their 
own childishness ; possibly the amusement, at the 
moment, of others, who may have been witnesses 
of these interesting domestic proceedings. There 
are times when one wishes to have a wall a hun- 
dred feet high around him, to shut off the gaze 
of the great outside criticising world from the 
little world within. All pronounced it a success, 
and all alighted but little " Peanut," who persisted 
in keeping her seat, and having a "dive." " Pea- 
nut" is the soicbriquet of one member of our 
household, to whom we are indebted for much 
good cheer. 

But what would the carryall be without the 
black horse.'* Some firms we read of in the 
business world are made up of what people call 
" silent partners " and " business partners." The 
business partner does the hard work — the silent 
partner furnishing the capital, in whole or in part. 
Now, the black horse was, in this household firm, 
the business or working partner, and many hopes 
for the Summer depended much on his muscle, 
or his ability to do hard work ; and, while it took 
some of our hard earnings to pay for him, he yet 
represented a considerable capital in himself, and 
would sell, we thought, for more than he cost us, 



1 6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

which was less than his intrinsic worth, if we 
should ever offer him in the horse-market. The 
thought of doing so, almost brings a tear. And 
that he was a " silent partner," we are quite sure; 
for he gave himself no trouble with the business. 
He seemed to care mainly for his oats, which 
were his " dividends " from the business, and 
which he received as eagerly as any miser ever 
drew his twenty-five per cent on stocks. 

Buying a horse is not so difficult a task as to 
need give one any particular concern, as we 
found out by trial. We said to a number of gen- 
tlemen that we wanted a horse. We had not 
been an owner of one for a long time, and were 
not very capable of making a selection ; and now 
we remark that one should never pretend to 
know all things. It was Confucius who said, 
" The essence of knowledge is having it to apply 
it, not having it to confess your ignorance." It 
is at least honest for one to plead ignorance 
where ignorance does exist. A man may have 
read books on Chemistry and Geology, and yet 
not know much about the planting of wheat or 
pruning of apple-trees ; or one may be a good 
ethnologist, and yet not understand the "points" 
of a good horse. Therefore, we should always 
avail ourselves of the advice of others who know 
more than we do. A philosopher sat in a boat, 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 1/ 

giving an unlettered oarsman lectures on the 
science of navigation, the laws of action and re- 
action, and other learned subjects, when sud- 
denly the boat sprang a leak ; but it happened 
that the oarsman could swim, and the philos- 
opher could not. The oarsman knew something 
which the philosopher did not, and much to his 
disadvantage. 

Well, to return to the horse. No sooner was 
the word out than every man we met had a 
horse to sell, or knew of one who had, or could 
tell us just where there was one which would 
suit us exactly. Then came the long procession 
to our door. P^irst, there was a bay mare, out of 
town two miles, that was just the thing. So off 
we went, and, luckily, found the owner at home. 

After the accustomed salutations, we proceeded 
direct to business. 

" Want to see your bay mare !" 

" Yes : come with me. There she is. Very 
fine animal ; raised her from a colt ; women can 
drive her ; never ran away ; five years old ; kind 
as a kitten ; used to single harness ; easily kept ; 
has good eyes, good feet ; handsome as a picture ; 
fast walker ; good trotter. Would not sell her ; 
but — hard up." 

We took advantage of a pause at the last word 
to put in an interrogation. 

2 



1 8 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

"What is the price?" 

"She is worth two hundred and fifty dollars. 
Was offered that for her. Can get it of Mr. 
Grimes when he returns from the East. He 
wants her very much. Knows her well. She is 
so kind, you know. Yes ; but you can take her 
for two hundred and twenty-five dollars." 

Just then we began to grow a little suspi- 
cious of the man, and a whole platoon of ques- 
tions flashed through our mind. If she is worth 
so much, and Grimes wants her, why don't he 
take her, and why sell her for less.? etc. But 
one or two questions will settle the whole mat- 
ter. And, turning from the mare to the man — 
from an honest beast to what we half suspected 
to be a dishonest owner, failing to see any de- 
fects in the outward appearance — we assaulted 
his bastions in three divisions, and asked : 

"Do you own this farm .?" 

"Yes." 

" You know all about this mare }'' 

"Yes." 

"Will you take two hundred dollars for her, 
in cash, on the spot .?" 

After a survey of about two square feet of 
soil at his feet, and a look of most profound 
contemplation for one minute — it would not 
do to prolong the contemplation, for fear we 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. I9 

might change the offer — he raised his eyes and 
answered : ^ 

"Yes, she's yours." 

"We repeat, two hundred dollars in cash — you to 
make a bill of sale, and warrant her entirely sound." 

His eyes dropped, there came over his face a 
sober expression, and he said : 

" She is all right, stranger ; nothing but a little 
touch of the heaves once in a while, which will 
not hurt her, you know." 

"That is no fault of the poor beast; but we 
don't want her," we said. And, bidding "good- 
day" to the owner of the heavy mare, we were 
off, satisfied that dealing in horses might some- 
times afford a man the opportunity of being dis- 
honest, and, in buying a horse, one might happen 
to be cheated. 

Then came one man with a large, raw-boned 
animal, which looked as if it had been made of 
saw-logs and covered with boiler-iron. Another 
with a small bay pony, about the size of a sack 
of wool, if the reader can imagine how large that 
is, which " never kicked," " never ran away," and 
which, in fact, always did run away, if it got 
even half a chance to become frightened ; and 
which, like Pat's belligerent creed, " Wherever 
you see a head, always hit it," never did 
allow a buggy to have a dash-board on it if it 



20 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Could possibly, by any plan, get its hind-feet 
through it. And the reader knows very well 
that, to have a horse's hind-feet thrust through 
the dash-board, in the direction of one's face, is 
productive of a series of sensations which rather 
tend to mar an otherwise enjoyable evening's 
ride. Next came a chestnut-sorrel colt ; and then 
a gray horse ; and then, within a week, a dozen 
or two other horses, of all colors, shapes, and 

sizes. Why, it did seem as if all A thought 

we were engaged in fitting out a cavalry regi- 
ment, for all the horses within a radius of four 
and three-quarter miles were for sale ; and, what 
struck us as a remarkable phenomenon, worthy 
of the investigation of a Pickwickian club, these 
horses were all sound, perfectly so, and none 
were over nine years old — a point beyond which 
you can not tell the age of a horse with any de- 
gree of certainty. It is the easiest thing in the 
world to buy a horse, the most difficult thing 
imaginable to buy a good one. 

During all these Spring days, we did a good 
deal of coquetting and flirting with different 
members of the equine species. We were a 
little hard to suit; and why not.? We were 
choosing a partner in business, a companion 
for the whole family— not a dumb beast merely, 
whose only merit was that he could draw a 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 2 I 

wagon-load of any thing, and eat his peck of 
oats. We wanted all this ability, but more. 
Our ideal horse must weigh not far from twelve 
hundred pounds ; for looks are something in this 
world. Even if a smaller animal could do the 
work, to have a small horse fastened to a great 
standing-top carryall, would have in it an ap- 
pearance of indifference to good taste ; and, be- 
sides, one would not relish the idea of being 
arrested by a policeman for violating the statute 
against cruelty to animals, which, at least, should 
not be a dead-letter on the books. Besides, it 
tires one to see a small horse tugging at a big 
load. By a sort of sympathy, we feel for that 
which seems to be a great exertion. Who ever 
enjoyed the music of an organ, while watching 
the man in his shirt-sleeves pumping air into the 
bellows, as if he were trying to put out a fire 
with a hand-engine, or keep a ship from sinking 
with a hand-pump ? When the organ stops, we 
are always tired ; we have been pumping air, in- 
stead of enjoying the music. A friend of ours, 
who always entertains us splendidly, has on his 
mantel-piece a bronze figure supporting at arm's- 
length a globular clock. We do n't like it ; our 
arm always aches when we leave to go home. 
Then, our ideal horse must be of good size — 
that's a sine qiLa non. 



22 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

We want a good-looking horse. An ugly, 
slovenly, ill-shaped, coarse-built, shaggy steed 
might draw the load as well, be just as safe and 
just as kind, but the question of looks can not 
very well be ignored. 

A good-looking horse will not eat any more, 
nor require any more attention, than an ill-look- 
ing one. He will live just as long, and work 
just as well, and sell better in the market. Our 
carryall must not be drawn by any inferior- 
looking horse. There must be a regard to the 
"fitness of things," as theologians say. There 
must be unity in appearance. With us, it re- 
solved itself into a profound question, touching 
even the realm of metaphysics. We cogitated 
on the principles of aesthetics, thought of Ruskin 
and Kames, reasoned with ourselves on sundry 
questions of personal vanity, re-examined our 
belief in the dogmatics, and then said, coolly, 
deliberately, and of purpose, "We. must have a 
good-looking horse." 

We were not like the man who inquired of the 
postmaster of the village about the price of a 
postage-stamp, and, on being told they were three 
cents a-piece, asked if there were not some cheaper. 

" Yes," said the worthy Government official ; 
" we have them as low as one cent ; but it will 
take more of them, and won't look so well." 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 23 

" Who cares for looks ?" cried the man ; " I '11 
take three." 

He wanted to get the worth of his money. 

A good-looking horse is always cheapest in 
the end, other things being equal. Good looks 
are at a premium every-where, and should be. 

Again, our ideal horse must be kind. We 
want to make him one of the family, to think 
about, care for, talk to, and enjoy. Now, horses 
differ in their temperaments just as people do. 
They have their way of talking, and their lan- 
guage is more easily learned than Greek or He- 
brew. They have their way of expressing grat- 
itude, their way of asking questions, their way 
of showing attachment, and of resenting insults. 
Horses have brains — they think, in their way. 
If you suppose your horse is simply so much of 
animated matter, you mistake. They may not 
have souls, but they have mind — horse-mind. 

The "black horse," which we call "Dick," 
would not be just what a "fast man" would 
crave. We were lucky in finding him. He 
came just in the nick of time. That he is 
worthy of being enshrined in our story, the 
reader will admit when we say that "Dick" is 
our ideal horse, black as a raven, large enough 
for the carryall, gentle as a lamb, kind as a 
woman. His age is in his favor — he is at least 



24 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

nine years old. He has reached his majority, and 
put away coltish things. 

He will take us over a railroad-bridge while 
the train is passing under it. He cares noth- 
ing for drums, fire-crackers, or velocipedes. His 
limbs are clean ; his tail long and graceful — a 
horse's tail is his glory. His eyes are large and 
benignant in expression. He is as broad be- 
tween his eyes as a Greek sage. Horses, like 
men, can be judged of, in some degree, by their 
cranial development. Horse-phrenology is a sci- 
ence which will yet have its " professors." But, 
really, " Dick " is possessed of a good head. Be- 
ware of men or horses, with little, round, knotty 
heads, which are shaped like gourds. They will 
run against you, or something else, and do harm. 

Over his body are sundry scars — marks which 
tell of hardship in early life. These marks ex- 
cite our sympathy, and make us love him. On 
his left shoulder, seen quite dimly, are the signif- 
icant letters, " U. S." Ah, that tells the whole 
story! "Dick" has seen service — is a veteran; 
was ridden to the Army of the Cumberland by 
a brave Michigan cavalryman ; was in several 
battles ; received sundry small wounds ; did 
honorable service ; shed his blood for his coun- 
try. Dick, you 're a hero, we all say. Noble 
fellow! You helped quell the rebellion; you 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 2$ 

went on many a long raid, and had hard work 
even to obtain a good mouthful of grass, and 
which you had to confiscate, at that. You 
helped carry the stars and stripes. Noble fel- 
low ! The country is yours. You 're a patriot. 
Now you shall be cared for. You shall be 
known in our book as the " Black Horse." We 
will give you the best of oats, corn, and hay. 
You shall have a good bed of straw at night, 
and a blanket in cold weather. Your feet shall 
not be pinched with poor shoes. Your harness 
shall not chafe you. You shall draw us on our 
trips of pleasure. We will let you have many a 
rollick in the pasture-field. You shall be treated 
with considerate kindness when you are sick ; 
and, when you die, we will see to it that the 
place where you lie shall be worthy of your 
dignified and noble horseship. 

" What would you have ? Your gentleness shall force, 
More than your force move us to gentleness." 




CHAPTER II. 

" Sweet recreation barred, zuhat doth ensice 
Bict moody and dull melancholy /"' 




!HE reader will perceive, at once, the de- 



sign of our book. The " Black Horse 
and Carryall" are a symbol. They are 
not mythical, however. The engraving which 
adorns the book, was made from a photograph, 
and is real. Yet they are symbolical, inasmuch 
as so many of our best thoughts, holiest pur- 
poses, happiest hours, most generous deeds, have 
been in some way connected with them. 

Wherever we have gone, on many a Summer's 
ride, by the cooling lake-side or among the grain- 
fields yielding their golden harvests, or where 
orchards were crowned with the rarest fruits, or 
by vineyards where the luscious grapes hung in 
Eshcolian clus-ters, or where the hill-sides were 
covered with cattle; in the brightness of the 
26 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 2/ 

morning, or in the deepening shadows of the 
evening, when 

"Drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;" 

in all these Summer ramblings, the Black Horse 
and Carryall have been with us — a part of us. 
When we have said " let us go " here or there, 
our meaning was not limited to " us four and no 
more ;" hut we meant the whole family, which in- 
cluded the Black Horse and Carryall ; we adopted 
them into the family. 

The human heart was made to love some- 
thing — every thing. People love each other; we 
know men love their wives, or at least ought to do 
so, and vice versa. Parents love their children, and 
children their parents. It is quite unnatural not to 
love ; and one who has not loved has not really 
lived ; for love is the truest and most enduring life. 

Old maids and old bachelors often assume to 
be quite stoical, to be sure ; and yet an old maid 
will devote herself to taking care of a cat, or 
poodle-dog, and be quite romantic about it too. 
And that only shows that the heart instinctively 
turns to some object, even though it be only a 
poodle. 

It is somehow a belief we have, that God in- 
tended every human being to have a companion, 
not to hold off at arm's-length, but to take to 



28 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the heart ; and, hence, to live the life of an old 
bachelor or an old maid, has in it an element of 
wrong. 

Any man who will bolt the door of his heart 
against the entrance of the angel of the tender 
passion, or incase it in a shield of brass to ward 
off the arrows of Cupid, is an enemy to his race, 
and deserves the execration of all mankind. He 
ought to live in a garret, without fire to warm him 
in Winter, and with fire in Summer. He ought 
to sleep on straw, and feed on husks. 'O, that 
we could command language to express ourselves 
on this subject ! Courtesy — a delicate regard we 
have felt, from our childhood, for woman — will not 
allow us to say one word which could be in any 
way construed to her disadvantage ; all we can say 
is in the way of a paraphrase : " Pity the sorrows 
of a poor old maid!' 

We were talking, just a moment ago, of the 
Black Horse and Carryall, and were going to say 
that inanimate things were made, at times, the 
objects of ou-r love. An engineer will walk 
around the great heartless, thoughtless locomo- 
tive, pat its iron ribs, and talk to it as if it could 
comprehend his meaning. 

An old mountaineer once lay dying on his rude 
couch, and after bidding adieu to all his friends 
who stood weeping around, asked them to hand 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 29 

him his old rifle, which stood in the corner. Of 
course the dying man's request was heeded, and 
the old rifle was laid by his side. He spoke to 
it tenderly. He had borne it on his shoulders up 
many a steep hill, and held it above the waters 
while fording many a turbulent stream. He had 
camped out through many a wild, dark night, far 
from his lodge, by the smoldering fires his flint 
had kindled ; and though wolves had barked 
around him, and the panther's fierce growl had 
often stirred him from his dreams, yet the aim of 
the old rifle was deadly ; it had sent its ball to 
the heart of many a deer and bear. In the dark, 
wild mountain he felt secure against any foe, 
with such a trusty and powerful friend near him ; 
and, thanking the old rifle, scarred and battered 
from many a mishap, for the good it had done in 
expelling the wild beast, and providing food for a 
hungry household a thousand times; and, withal, 
conscious that his strength was gone, and he 
never again could raise it to his shoulder, or 
"draw a bead " on target, bear, or deer, — he bid it 
farewell as a friend parts from a friend, never to 
meet again ; and the old rifle went to its corner 
in the room, the spirit of the old hunter went to 
its mansion in the skies. 

And so, if sea-captains love the ships which 
have borne them over many a stormy sea, and 



30 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

hunters love their rifles, and engineers their loco- 
motives — because, by virtue of its natural im- 
pulses, the heart does sometimes personify even 
material things and their attributes — we shall 
not be deemed an outlaw by the judgments of 
society, if we, in a manner, express our affection 
for an inanimate companion, our carryall, which 
has carried us, and all the family, to and fro so 
faithfully. In our imagination, it is personified. 

The imaginative powers, with which we are 
gifted by the Creator, were not designed to give 
pain, but pleasure. Pain is a something of the 
mind, rather than the body. We are taught in 
the books on Mental Science and Physiology, 
that it is not the physical eye that sees, but the 
mind (the eye is only the instrument through 
which the mind acts) ; that sound is an effect 
produced on the conscious soul by certain vibra- 
tions of the atmosphere. We object, and claim 
something more subtile than the common atmos- 
phere — an ether of some kind, which pervades 
universal space, and whose operations set in 
motion the delicate organs of the ear, which act 
upon the brain, where the sound is produced. 
Hence it is said, if there were no ears, there 
could be no sound. The firing of a cannon only 
causes a vibration of some kind, which the intel- 
ligent faculty apprehends. So, when you burn 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 3 1 

your finger, that which comes of it, namely, 
pain, is not in- the finger, though it seems to be, 
but in the head or brain, the place which all 
accept as the seat of our intelligence. Hence, 
all pain is mental ; and, equally, all pleasure is 
mental. Intelligence is supreme. 

It was Stewart, in his "Mental Philosophy," 
who said that the province of the imagination is 
" to make a selection of qualities and of circum- 
stances from a variety of different objects, and 
by combining and disposing these, to form a new 
creation of its own." Now, though Addison de- 
fined it to be a product of the sense of sight 
only, we claim he was wrong, inasmuch as imag- 
ination is a mental operation, and the mind 
receives impressions from the outward world 
through ears, tongue, touch, and nose, as well 
as eyes. Addison was arbitrary in this, rather 
than reasonable. 

We hold that, the intelligence in us being 
supreme, we have power to convert things over 
from one side to another ; to get sweet out of 
bitter, and good out of evil ; in the language of 
Stewart, "to form new creations." Lord Karnes 
says: "Man is endowed with a sort of creative 
power. He can fabricate images of things that 
have no existence." Then, if this be the case, 
we should use the power for our comfort. We 



32 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

should not always be expecting great evils to 
overtake us. Never borrow trouble from the 
future. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil 
thereof" The traveling companion of an old 
divine was once terribly uneasy about a bridge, 
which lay somewhere before them in their jour- 
ney, and which was reputed to be very unsound, 
and was rebuked by the very philosophic state- 
ment that "a man never ought to cross a bridge 
until he comes to it." It was a very common- 
place statement, that ; but, then, these common- 
place sayings are often philosophy crystallized — 
not the crude carbon, but the real diamond of 
thought. A word " fitly spoken " is, indeed, an 
"apple of gold." The right word in the right 
place may do more execution than a whole lec- 
ture. The eccentric Dean Swift never preached 
a more eloquent charity sermon than when he 
rose and said to his congregation : " He that 
giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. Now, 
brethren, if you like the security, down with the 
dust !" 

It is our prerogative and duty to imagine away 
evils as far as possible, not to see ghosts in every 
dark nook and cranny of life ; but, if there were 
such things, to convert them over into angels by 
our imagination. 

We hold it to be possible to get an equation 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 33 

between one's nerves and a fractious horse ; so 
that, if he is too positive, we may be just nega- 
tive enough to restore the equiUbrium. This 
they call, in mechanics, compensation, or the 
correlation of mechanical forces ; so that slow- 
ness in one wheel gives velocity to another. We 
call it, in common parlance, "keeping cool." 
We know that it is pretty difficult to imagine 
away a toothache, or the fact that a bank-note 
is due when we are unable to meet it ; or that 
it does n't rain, when it does ; or that one feels 
good-natured, when bored by an unwelcome vis- 
itor. And yet, out of all things we must extract 
some precious soul-nourishment, some substantial 
good. We should all be philosophers. As a bee 
gets honey out of every flower, even the poison- 
ous, so we must find good in every thing ; find 
pleasure, instead of pain, every-where. Here we 
have the exact formula, made to our hand by one 
of the greatest of men — great in works, great in 
suffering. It is this, to be "joyful in tribulation." 

And not less should we imagine away evils, 
real and apparent, than we should gain a great 
deal of pleasure by the same process. 

We do not know who it was that coined the 

expression, " Building castles in the air ;" but we 

think it an expression quite apt. We can have 

ideal castles, ideal fortunes, and positively enjoy 

3 



34 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

ideal recreations. It is just about as well for us 
to imagine ourselves rich, as to be rich. If a 
man walk across the river on ice which is three 
inches thick— thick enough, in all conscience, to 
carry one — while he imagines it to be a foot 
through, he is just as well off as if it zvere a foot 
in thickness. It is a foot thick in his idea. S9 
the riches of this world. They who have just 
enough of this world's goods to make them com- 
fortable, have all any body can use. Riches are 
a delusion, as well as a snare. Some people are 
poor who have millions ; while others are rich 
who have very little in the world to call their 
own. True riches are in the heart, while a false 
philosophy puts them in the pocket. 

How rich a contented person may be! The 
atmosphere, the sunlight, the balmy breezes, the 
fragrance of all the flowers, the landscapes, are 
all free to all men — poor as well as rich. Every 
man can own pictures which no artist, not a 
Rubens or a Vandyke, could paint, and roam at 
will over all creation, enjoying it, owning it — in 
imagination. And so long as one can have all 
these things to enjoy, without paying' taxes, or 
being in danger of displacement, who can not be 
rich, ideally, in fact.^ A contented man is rich. 

We have, then, our castles ; our spirits live in 
them. We have our gardens, where bloom the 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 35 

rarest flowers; and we can walk through them. 
We can mount up the shining way of the better 
life, and hold companionship with the angels. 

We can travel, without 'the cumbersome fixture 
of car or boat, over all lands. We can go into 
the chamber of kings. We can gaze upon the 
splendor of courts ; climb mountain-peaks, where 
foot of flesh never stood ; and walk along the 
ocean's bottom, and count the decayed wrecks 
that strew it. 

All these recreations we can take, in an ideal 
way. And so, as we drive the Black Horse and 
Carryall, surrounded by those we love, viewing 
the landscapes, we call them, our own. When we 
hear the songs of thrush or robin, we feel that 
God sets them to singing for us. When the 
shower descends to moisten the earth, it is to 
set the flowers to blooming for our benefit — to 
start up the wheat for our bread. 

" Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 
My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." 

We are not an " idealist," in the technical 
sense ; and yet we see in ideahsm the source of 
much good. We all have our ideals — we must 
have them. 

The architect constructs the house, on paper, 
which is an ideal house. Take yonder lofty and 
beautiful building. The plan was not made from 



36 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the building, but the building from the plan. 
Or, look at that delicate and beautiful piece of 
machinery. It was not built by simply adding 
one piece to another — here a lever, there an 
arm, yonder a wheel or piston — but first a plan 
was made, a nice adjustment of parts was ar- 
ranged ; and thus the machinist saw all com- 
plete, and in running order, before the forge had 
wrought out a single wheel or arm. The whole 
had existed subjectively, as the philosophers 
would say, in his mind. O, that is a strange 
power with which mortals are endowed ! Battles 
can be planned, governments founded, navies set 
afloat, railroads constructed from ocean to ocean, 
in the mind ; and the subjective thought can 
become an objective reality. 

And here we have evidence of that soul-life 
which we are yet to live, " when this mortality 
shall have put on immortality ;" when the crea- 
tions of the mind will be equal to the ability to 
explore all space, and roam at will throughout 
the dominions of the Eternal. 

And so in our life, we need an ideal of good- 
ness, truth, faith ; a plan to work by. Where do 
we find our best pattern .-* In history .'* It fur- 
nishes us some noble names of martyrs, heroes, 
statesmen, artists, philanthropists. But we go 
not to the history of Greece or Rome or Eng- 



I 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 3/ 

land, to find the model on which to build our 
character, but to Him who was " despised and 
rejected of men ;" to Him whose life was a 
grand and beautiful illustration of goodness in its 
divine simplicity — who could look upon even his 
murderers, and say, " Father, forgive." . No other 
such man as he ever lived. Confucius and 
Zoroaster and Plato were, in their day and gen- 
eration, brilliant lights, and have projected them- 
selves into distant ages ; but, compared with the 
Nazarene, the man of the seamless garment, 
the King of kings and Lord of lords, their light 
pales into dimness. O, there is power in that 
name ! Read the story of his life, and you will 
learn a lesson of meekness, patience, and love, 
which can be learned nowhere else. If we con- 
struct our lives by this model, they will be beau- 
tiful indeed. 

Give your little child an outline picture of a 
house or tree ; give it a blackboard and crayon, 
and set it to the task of copying the image. It 
will draw many crooked lines, and make many 
mistakes; but it will study the pattern, and will, 
in time, be able to master the subject, and pro- 
duce a true copy. This is what the ideal will do 
for the child. And so let us set Jesus in the 
horizon of life — Jesus full of love, free from pas- 
sion, meek, gentle, holy — and we shall soon find 



38 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

ourselves desiring to be like him ; and longing 
to be so will have its influence on our lives. He 
of the matchless speech once said, "And I, if 
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me." If we look and long for the better 
life — the spiritual life — He will lift us up to it. 
Baron Von Humboldt speaks of standing on one 
of the lofty summits of Chimborazo, with the sun- 
shining in brightness over him, the clouds wrap- 
ping their dark mantles about the mountain-sides, 
while far below him, lightnings flashed and thun- 
ders roared ; yet all was serene where he stood 
firm on the rocks of Chimborazo. So we shall 
be lifted above clouds and storms ; our feet may 
stand on the eternal Rock of Ages. 

We are told that, in the beginning, man was 
created in the "image of God." It was a spirit- 
ual image. That image, lost in the fell, is put 
back by the Savior, our example, our Divine Re- 
deemer; and that person only is truly man or 
woman who is God-like, Christ-like. Not long 
ago, we were whirling along in a fast train. It 
was in early morning. During the preceding 
night, a mist had fallen, and, settling on the 
branches of the trees and shrubs and grass, had 
been sufficiently heavy to form drops on their 
extremities. There spread out before us an ex- 
tended landscape ; but O, how lovely ! The 



IDEAL RECREATIONS. 39 

weather had changed in the night ; and when 
morning came, on shrub and tree and spear of 
grass, as far as the line which bound our vision, 
instead of drops of water, were globules of ice ; 
and each one reflected the perfect image of the 
sun, who, though more than ninety millions of 
miles away, mirrored his face in each one of all 
the millions of these ice-globules : so that the 
landscape was as lovely as if God had rained 
down on all the earth a shower of diamonds, 
rubies, and sapphires. It was a picture we never 
shall allow to fade from our memory. Ay : was 
it not a type of the better land — a spiritual 
mirage, a temporary reflection of the heavenly 
world upon our earth-life .'' We thought of the 
golden streets and pearly gates, and rode on. 

But there was another thought. As each one of 
all these millions of ice-globules bears an image 
of the distant sun, whose heat will soon dissipate 
them all back into the vapor from whence they 
have come ; so we all may bear the image of God, 
we may reflect that image of Him — the image 
"whose throne is in the heavens, and whose 
kingdom ruleth over all ;" whom the heaven of 
heavens can not contain, until we, too, return to 
Him. 

O, is it not a wonderful thought, that the dis- 
tant sun should picture his face in the tiny 



40 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

dewdrop or ' frozen mist-drop ? Is it not more 
wonderful that the great God, whose hand has 
sprinkled space with stars, and lighted up the 
deep vaults of ether with suns, by the " word of 
his power," should thus dwell in man, put his 
image on the heart of mortals ? O, it is most 
wonderful ! But it is true. 





CHAPTER III. 



^ife. 




" If solid happiness we prize. 
Within (nir breasts this jetvel lies. 

And they are fools who roam. 
Tlie world has nothing to bestow ; 
From our ozvn selves our joys must flow, 
And that dear hut, our home?'' 

E occasionally stop the Black Horse and 
Carryall under a good shade-tree, giving 
*'Dick" an opportunity to recruit his 
wasted energies, while we stroll about, and thus 
gain what he does not need ; namely, exercise. 

Our motto is, never to be idle. We can always 
find employment for the mind, even in the dull 
and dusty lane, where we can behold beautiful 
revelations of the plans and purposes of Provi- 
dence. Surely, all nature is man's teacher. 

The other day, while we were reclining in the 
shade of a stately oak, we noticed that almost 
every little head of white clover had upon it a 

41 



42 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

honey-bee. If we were to inquire who planted 
this clover, the appropriate answer would be, God 
did it. If we ask why he planted it, the answer 
must be, For just the uses to which it is put all 
over the world ; it furnishes food for the roving 
beast, and honey for the bee. It is almost won- 
derful what an immense amount of honey a few 
bees will extract from these little white flowers, 
which grow along the road-sides. It is an eco- 
nomical arrangement, too, that even the way-side 
should be contributory to the world's comfort- 
There is good every-where, and in every thing. 
These bees extract the most delicious honey from 
the little obscure flowers along the dusty high- 
way, where one might suppose every good thing 
would be crushed out, under the passing hoof or 
wheel. And so it is with our life journey. Our 
business is to see good in every thing — to turn 
every event and circumstance to good account. 

There is a great deal of sweetness in life, if we. 
only live as we should. It is the misfortune of 
too many, that they pass by the true sources of 
human joy, and look for their happiness just 
where it is not to be found. 

There are a great many unhappy people in the 
world, who might be happy were they to seek it 
in the right direction. There are little flowers 
growing all along our pathway, which ofler their 



HOME LIFE. 43 

sweetness to us freely ; but we disdain their in- 
significance, and look up into the tree-tops where 
bitter acorns grow. Ah, after men have tried 
every expedient, they often find it to their com- 
fort to come right down to the plane of little 
things, and seek their highest good in them ! 

The real happiness of life is not in fame and 
riches, but in home life; and this is made up of 
little words and acts. 

There is no word spoken in any language, 
around which cluster such a multitude of sweet 
affections, endearing thoughts, and holy memories, 
as gather about that one word, Jiome. We need 
only speak it, and it carries our thoughts away 
to some other spot, possibly to some other land 
across the sea, more swiftly than the lightning's 
flash. There is some place which we once called 
" home," and which, of all places, we loved most 
and best. We have not forgotten that place — 
we never can. 

To dream of the home of our youth, is a very 
common experience. When the physical senses 
are locked up in sleep, the soul seems to have 
holiday; and, as if exulting in its freedom, it 
roams wildly every-where. We are transported 
back to our childhood days again, and experience 
all that we once enjoyed. We wander over the 
grassy mead ; we climb the rugged hill-side, and 



44 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

listen to the murmuring brooklet, whose rippling 
waters spoke a strange language to us in the 
sunny hours of childhood. 

And then, in our dreams, there come back to 
us, like angelic visitants from the better land, the 
friends of former days. We hear the songs 
which gladdened our early years ; we catch the 
smile on a mother's face, and lean for support on 
a father's strong arm. 

We awake out of our dreams. The vision has 
departed, as the rainbow fades from the cloud. 
Life's realities are upon us, and we say it was 
only a dream. But so it is — in our reveries by 
day, as in our dreams by night, not least nor last 
in the mind are the memories of home. 

In our life -journey, we often meet those who 
are, or have been, deprived of ail these sweet 
memories. They were homeless ; death had 
made them orphans, or drunkenness had turned 
home into Pandemonium, or jarring strifes had 
banished every hope of domestic bliss. Who 
does not pity the man or woman whose experi- 
ence of life fails to include all that is implied in 
the word home .? They are like the blind, who 
never saw the light of this beautiful world. If 
we compare life to the temple Solomon built, 
then home is its "holy of holies." Into this 
holy of holies they have never been permitted to 



HOME LIFE. 45 

enter. We pity them for what they have lost in 
life — home life. 

In the estimation of very many people, the 
word home means simply a house. It signifies 
four walls, a floor, a roof, some doors and win- 
dows, a stove or fire-place, a table at w^iich to 
eat, a bed whereon to sleep, a few acres of land, 
or, possibly, a few feet of land. That these 
things go toward constituting a home we do not 
deny ; but that is home in the very lowest sense 
which is gauged and measured by these material 
things. We may possess all these — walls adorned 
with the finest art, grounds arranged with the 
most exquisite skill ; we may have books to make 
us wise, and gold wherewith to purchase every 
luxury the heart can crave, and people to fawn 
at our feet, and yet we may be homeless ; for 
the word has a deeper meaning than this. What, 
then, should a home be.-* Let us inquire. 

A home consists usually of husband and wife ; 
or, to use words still more replete with meaning, 
father and mother, as owners or governors, and 
children, who are its crown of joy. And this is 
not the invention of human society, but it has 
its origin in Divine law. This is the foundation 
of all society, and of all government. In the 
very beginning of time, mankind were set into 
families ; and, when the world became peopled. 



46 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

they went forth from a home altar to multiply, 
replenish, and subdue the earth. God created 
the world in love. He redeemed it in love. 
And so he has made love, in its highest sense, 
the great law of the universe. The love which 
gave your heart a new life, and bound you, 
in cords not designed to be broken, to another, 
was planted in your heart by Him who declared 
himself to be Love. And when St. Paul would 
use a forcible illustration of the love which 
there is between Christ and his Church, he 
compares it to the human love between husband 
and wife. 

What, let us ask, would this life be without 
that reigning principle } The warm, gushing 
love of child, sister, wife, husband, parent, or 
friend, throws over life a peculiar radiance. The 
impulse which brings together those who were 
once strangers to each other, and in a very holy 
sense makes them one, is that which gives to 
life in this world its chief value. Nor is it to 
be viewed, as is too often the case, from the 
utilitarian stand-point, the grosser side; but from 
the spiritual, the heavenly. That great man, 
Jonathan Edwards, when near the dying moment, 
sent to his absent wife this message : 

"Give my kindest love to my wife, who for 
thirty years has blessed my home. Tell her 



HOME LIFE. 47 

that the uncommon union which has so long sub- 
sisted between us has been of such a nature as, 
I trust, is spiritual, and therefore will continue 
forever." 

This affection, which binds us into families, is 
a Divine gift to our hearts ; and when it com- 
pletely takes possession of the heart, it not only 
lifts us into a new life, but into a better life. We 
always have hope for those who have learned 
to love. 

It is no uncommon thing for people to speak 
lightly of these very sacred things, and to regard 
the formation of their matrimonial alliances as 
mere accidents of their being. But who does 
not know that there' is no one thing which so 
materially affects society and* the general destiny 
of mankind as this .'' Home life is the secret of 
the nation's life. A homeless nation has no 
substantial basis — no beginning of government. 
Hence it is said, " He setteth the solitary in 
families." God binds on us the duty of mutual 
aid and of mutual forbearance, while he has so 
constituted us as that we shall attract each other. 

Like does not always attract like ; but, as in 
the elements with which the chemist deals, the 
unlikes attract, and thus a sort of equilibrium is 
preserved, so the unlikes in human life. The 
weak are often taken care of b}^ the strong, and 



48 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the despondent are upheld and encouraged by 
the hopeful. In no one thing is that great law 
of the universe, "unity in diversity," seen more 
distinctly than in this sphere of our being. No 
two persons are exactly alike, and yet all are 
alike. 

Home is not always what it should be, for 
several reasons : First, because there are too 
many alliances which have no other foundation 
than family wealth, or convenience, or passion ; 
and all this violates the spirit of the institution 
of marriage. 

If persons are thrown together by any cause — 
however remote from the true spirit and design 
of marriage — then what shall be done ? We an- 
swer : Study each other, cultivate heart-hfe, bear 
each other's burdens ; and those who seem to be 
unfitted for each other may yet find, in those 
very points of diversity, the footsteps of Divinity 
shaping their ends — a Providence leading them 
even into the fields which their youthful fancy 
once pictured. 

But how common it is, in these days, for peo- 
ple to fly from themselves to others for redress, 
to forego the powers which they have within 
themselves, and resort to the civil courts, and 
thus profane what God in the beginning made 
holy! The true way for all is, to accept life as 



HOME LIFE. 49 

they find it. It may sometimes be hard; then 
*' endure hardness as good soldiers." Let it be a 
discipline of goodness ; and in the end they will 
thank God for what seemed to be even an ill in life. 
Husbands and wives may separate, but only as a 
necessary step to protect life or preserve honor. 
/^ But "home" includes more than walls and 
^ lands and government. It implies another side, 
one of brightness and innocence. The home not 
blessed with childhood is robbed of one of its 
chief delights. They are its music, its life, its 
central charms. They may cause labor and anx- 
iety, and often the bitterest disappointment and 
sorrow ; and yet all these can be borne with, and 
must be. They come of the sin which has 
tainted our nature. We can only wait and pity 
and pray. ^ 
{ God gives and takes away. But what a joy to 
every true heart is the gift of innocent, beautiful 
childhood ! How much of promise and of hope 
there is in the advent of a sweet babe in the 
household ! That look of dependence, that cling- 
ing love, how they mold us ! How much of 
genuine culture we have received in educating a 
young mind and heart! How strangely hopeful 
to witness the opening of the faculties of the 
mind, as some sweet flower unfolds to the Spring 
or Summer sun ! ) 



50 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

"Home is where the heart is." The walls 
may be unfrescoed and unhmig with pictures, 
the floors may be uncarpeted ; no gilded halls, no 
blaze of mirrors, no signs of wealth may greet 
us ; yet it is " home," because hearts loving and 
true are there. It is a world within a world. 
Affection, tenderness, attention in little things, 
all center there ; and, by virtue of these, it 
becomes, in a large degree, a compensation for 
the thousand woes to which we poor mortals 
are heir. 

The Bible is not silent on this question of 
home life. The husband is exhorted to love the 
wife, to be true in every respect. It is not enough 
that he declared it once when marriage-bells were 
ringing ; but the institution of marriage demands 
that his life shall be a witness of that affection. 
And he who so easily finds excuses to be absent 
from his home, at the club-room, at the lodge of 
some kind, evening after evening, or who seeks 
his companionship around the billiard-table, de- 
nies all his mere pretensions of love for wife and 
children. 

The best men and women in the world are 
those who have in their homes the centers of 
greatest attraction. And the happiest men and 
women in the world are they whose homes are 
made so by themselves. But, alas ! too many 



HOME LIFE. 51 

only regard home as a kind of shelter, a place 
to stay when they can go nowhere else. 

Men often neglect their homes, and do it under 
the garb of generosity. They pay all the family 
bills at sight. They are even lavish of expense. 
But the wife is given to understand that this is 
all she needs expect. The companionship which 
she craves most, others must have. How does 
this comport with the words of Holy Writ, 
"Husbands, love your wives.?" The Scripture 
says, "If any man does not provide for his own 
household, he is worse than an infidel." Then 
men say, "They will provide all their families 
need." Now, if they do this, and leave out of 
the account affection, tenderness, and all that 
which love implies, the household is not duly 
provided for. 

But there are reciprocal duties. The wife is 
admonished to be submissive. " Submit your- 
selves unto your own husbands." Let the hus- 
band do well his part, and the submission of the 
wife becomes easy. Her love is true, truer than 
his. Woman's love for husband and child is 
an all-controlling passion. Even when she is 
wronged by the coldest neglect, by the untold 
cruelties of intemperance, by causes which justly 
excite her jealousy, yet it is her nature. God- 
given, she will cling to him whom she has chosen 



52 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

as her companion in life; and when all others 
have forsaken him, she will imitate the ivy, which 
twines its tendrils about the oak to hold to- 
gether its fragments when the lightnings have 
shattered it. 

Not all wives are prudent, loving, and dutiful. 
But', then, such is woman's nature, that her influ- 
ence is a constant, elevating force, binding the 
world together and making it richer and more 
beautiful. 

The Bible enjoins family government : "Train 
up a child in the way he should go." If he is 
properly trained, he will be much more likely to 
go right. Obedience is enjoined on the part of 
the child. Superior age and wisdom qualify the 
parent to command, while the child should know 
nothing but obedience. Every man who governs 
his house as it should be, confers on it a bless- 
ing. But that government should be according 
to the spirit of the Gospel. There is such a 
thing as governing a house with a rod of iron. 
Some of the worst despots in the world are those 
of the household. They lord it over God's herit- 
age with a vengeance. They feel as if they were 
made to rule somebody ; and rule they do, most 
perseveringly, most effectively. They are self- 
willed men, who come and go without fear or 
favor ; every other will must be subordinate. 



HOME LIFE. 53 

They advise with no one, scarcely associate with 
any one. They are the Neros of the household 
empire ; and all who do not come when they call, 
and go when they send, may expect to be burned 
up in their wrath. 

With such a governor at the head of a family, 
there can be none of that softness and sweetness 
and love which the family was designed by its 
■ Author to cultivate. 

An iron will at the head of a family is a this- 
tle in a bouquet of flowers, a foot that crushes 
with remorseless tread the tender blossoms of 
affection that spring up. 

The wife, instead of coming with open arms 
and words of welcome, with love and smiles to 
greet the approach of her companion, trembles 
at the sound of the footsteps of one who only 
seems to her as a master. 

And the little olive-branches that have sprung 
up around the domestic altar, shrink back from 
his coming, like some kinds of blossoms that close 
their petals against the cold winds ; and they 
grow up like May-flowers under the snow. 

Do we call this government } Nay : it is 

rather a species of cruelty ; it is despotism. 

/^ Government implies law ; and all law has its 

foundation in right; and right is divine. There 

is no government like that of love. \ The rod 



54 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

may be used, but only as a last resort; as, in 
God's government over the world, mercy comes 
before wrath. 

The rod terrifies and excites the sense of fear ; 
but love wins the heart. 5 The one appeals to the 
mind, and may drive the child to lay its plans to 
deceive ; but love appeals to the moral being and 
excites a desire to please. Therefore, the best, 
the most rational argument to be used in the 
government of a household, is the logic of the 
heart. 

The family is a divine institution. It is first 
in order ; it existed before any other. All mere 
civil government exists to protect us in our 
homes. The army and the navy are only the 
outer household guard. Hence, home should be 
first in our thoughts and affections. How to get 
a home, how to keep it, how to make it the most 
attractive spot on earth, should be a constant 
study. 

And one of the most important thoughts is, 
that our homes should be cheerful. Society at 
large puts upon us a restraint, which is quite 
becoming when we are gazed upon by others. 
Then we must walk and talk after a model which 
the great world has adopted. But in the home 
circle this precision may be thrown off; but not 
so as to be impolite or coarse. Our homes should 



HOME LIFE. 55 

cultivate the opposite of stiffness and coldness. 
Society is the great deep sea, where the ship 
rides grandly on the waves. Home is rather the 
pebbled shore, where the sea shallows and ripples 
in the sunshine. 

One of the great faults of our home life grows 
out of that notion which some men have, that 
they must be very dignified and manly among 
their children, in order to command their respect. 
Hence, these men go home from the store or 
shop or office with a business walk and a busi- 
ness look. They carry the stern face of the 
counting-room with them to the dinner-table. 
They have mistaken sternness for manliness. 
They move among their families very much as 
the iceberg drifts coldly from northern seas, all 
the while surrounded by its own fragments ; they 
make home cold. Their look, their step, their 
demeanor, is chilling. 

Does such a man know what a fatal mistake 
he makes } If he would rush in through the 
gate into the house, and throw himself into the 
very arms of a loving, happy family ; take off his 
coat and boots, and romp with the baby, — he 
would forget his cares. It would be snatching 
a little sunshine from the clouds and obtaining a 
glimpse of heaven, besides doing the baby a deal 
of good. And this is not weakness ; it is true 



56 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

manliness, it is heart-life ; and is as needful as 
any thing which men seek to acquire in this 
grasping, busy world. 

We think, too, that the love of money ruins 
many homes. Many seem to think that all they 
need in this world or in the next, all worth living 
for, is money. Homes are often sacrificed to 
Mammon. We forget that luxuries have their 
proper place. We are intense utilitarians ; and 
yet we mistake the true idea of utility. Beauti- 
ful pictures can be bought for money. Now, 
which is better, which more useful in its influ- 
ence on life — a certain sum of money in bank, 
or its equivalent in some pictures on the wall.? 
We hold the latter to be often the better; for an 
expressive picture teaches. It is a sermon ; its 
voice is never silent. 

Books are costly ; yet a small, well-selected 
library is of infinitely more value to a growing 
family than its equivalent in gold or lands. An 
amusing toy may cost a little of our money ; and 
yet it affords to the child a positive advantage 
in the way of amusement. 

People sometimes live on the most unwhole- 
some food, because the better kind costs more 
money. But, then, we can not cheat God. 
There are compensations in nature; and what 
we save in food we expend in doctor's bills. So 



HOME LIFE. 57 

we can banish from our homes all that which 
makes home cheerful and glad ; and at the same 
time banish the child, and send it forth with 
a nature chilled, and with perverted views of 
home. 

Far be it from us to foster an extravagant 
spirit. We do not exhort you to spend your 
substance for toys, or in " riotous living ;" but to 
look at life as needing more than mere money — 
as being something more than merely staying in 
the world. 

But we must not be too ethereal. The house, 
with its walls and floors, does, after all, form our 
home, in part. And, whether rich or poor, it 
should have about it that which we call neat- 
ness. There is no excuse for filth. We can 
excuse poverty ; we can make allowance for 
occasional disorder ; but, for constant and accu- 
mulated filth, even the devil himself can find no 
suitable apology. 
^'^ Then, there is the custom of building a fine 
house, and shutting up a great portion of it the 
year around — making it dark and gloomy, with 
locked doors and closely curtained windows ; 
with great, gloomy parlors, which people keep 
for company — keep as moral ice-chests, social 
refrigerators, for freezing friendly callers in. 
This is all wrong. We should open our houses ; 



58 



THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 



let God's air and sunshine into them ; let the 
children have the opportunity of seeing and 
enjoying the best we have, and all we have, 
constantly, j 



CHAPTER IV. 

"If all our hoJ>es, and all our fears, 

Were prisoned in life's narrow bound ; 
If travelers through this vale of tears, 

We saw no better world beyond ; 
O, zvhat could check the rising sigh ? 

What ea7'thly thing could pleasure give ? 
O, who could venture then to die ? 

O, zuho could then eiidure to live ? " 




I HE power which rules the home should 
be heart, rather than brain. Love is 
the gravitation of this little home- 
universe./ As the sunbeam is made up of mill- 
ions of rays, so the light of home is composed 
not of any one great dominant quality, but of ten 
thousand little things. There should be kindness, 
in word and in act. The very tone of the voice 
is a home educator. Let a child grow up famil- 
iar with harshness of voice and abruptness of 
manner, and that harshness and abruptness are 
often perpetuated in that child's life.) So of 

JS9 



60 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the opposite ; love is contagious — like begets 
like.J 

Addison once wrote: "Two persons who have 
chosen each other out of all the species, with a 
design to be each other's mutual comfort and 
entertainment, have in that very act bound them- 
selves to be good-natured, affable, joyful, forgiv- 
ing, and patient, with respect to each other's frail- 
ties and imperfections, to the end of their lives." 
And here is a fault in many families: there is 
no exhibition of heart ; love is laid away in some 
dark closet along with the marriage certificate, 
to be forgotten, to be dusty and moth-eaten. 

Some one has said : " Man is the head of the 
home ; but woman is its heart." Never was any 
remark more true. A mother's influence runs 
down along the journey of our life, to its close. 
No man, who is worthy of the name, ever forgets 
the one to whom he is most of all indebted for 
what he is. The family is a school, in which the 
mother exerts far the greatest influence. She is 
almost the sole governor and teacher of the child 
during the first dozen years of its life. And 
many a man of the world, of fame, many a 
statesman of eminence, has gone back to ask 
counsel from the lips of mother. Many a great 
man, before engaging in some doubtful or haz- 
ardous enterprise, has said : " I must go and 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 6l 

see my mother, and hear what she has to 
say." 

It is said by some that the training of chil- 
dren devolves too much upon the mother. For 
our part, we think not. God has jfitted her for 
her work. Her soft hand, her tender look of 
compassion, her musical voice, her deep and 
pure affection, act upon the child as the breath 
of a better land, as sunshine on the growing 
plant. 

Let us go back, in our memories, to our 
early homes, and what do we most fondly cher- 
ish ? Ah, how quickly comes up our mother ! 
How she imprinted herself on our very being ! 
We will never forget her. She was to us the 
angel of our better life. Did she ever counsel 
wrong .? Her head may have erred — for *' to err 
is human" — but her heart was ever true. We 
may be suspicious of the friendship of others ; 
but of a dear mother's, never. Others may de- 
sert us ; but a mother clings to her child forever. 
By a holy instinct, by the deathless passion of 
love, she protects, defends, and guides the foot- 
steps of her child with an anxiety for its welfare 
that is only equaled by the depth of her love. 
O, what a world this would be without her, or 
if she were any other being than she is ! In 
the great work of redeeming the world, not least 



62 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

among the agencies will be ever found that of 
sanctified motherhood. 

An eminent man was once asked what was 
the cause of his success in life ; what one thing 
had most contributed to his eminence. He 
answered that he owed it all to his mother, who 
had taught him from his childhood always to 
hang his cap on the same nail behind the door 
when he came in from play. This was his first 
lesson in system. No one can be successful in 
any calling who is not systematic. Teach your 
child to be systematic — prompt — and you will 
make him more useful and happy in the future. 

John Wesley acknowledged his indebtedness 
to his mother for whatever success attended his 
labors. Methodism is but. the expansion of Su- 
sannah Wesley's nursery. George Washington 
carried, through his whole life, the impress of 
his mother's hand. Senator Benton once said : 
"My mother asked me never to use tobacco, and 
I have never touched it from that time to the 
present day. She asked me not to game, and 
I have never gambled. I can not tell who is 
winning or who is losing in any of the games 
that are played. She admonished me, too, 
against hard drinking ; and whatever capacity I 
have for endurance, whatever usefulness I may 
attain in life, I attribute to that mother's influ- 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 63 

ence. When I was seven years old I promised 
her never to drink. I then resolved on total 
abstinence when I was sole constituent member 
of my own body ; and that I have adhered to it 
all through my life, I owe it to my mother." 

"And say to mothers, what a holy charge is 
theirs! With what a kingly power their love 
might rule the fountains of the new-born mind. 
Warn them to wake at early dawn, and sow good 
seed before the world has sown its tares." 

Home should be enlivened with conversation. 
We learn much more from hearing than from 
reading. People will listen to lectures, or ser- 
mons of an hour's length, which they would not 
read. The living voice is a great instructor. 
Then we know the young mind is active. The 
childish mind is full of questions. Ideas, some 
right and others wrong, float through the brain 
like birds in the air, and the child desires to 
know. The duty of those who have these little 
questioners around them is to enter into conver- 
sation with them freely. Make a counselor of 
your boy. Give him intellectual food, and it will 
develop and strengthen his powers. It will make 
him more manly, and he will have less inclina- 
tion to wander from his home. But if you are 
dull ; if you keep all your thoughts to yourself, 
reserve all you know for others, — your children' 



64 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

may look upon home as a kind of box to be shut 
up in, and they will get out of it as soon as 
they can. 

The education of a child is a slow process. It 
has all to learn that we have learned. Faculty 
after faculty must be called into play. Power 
after power must be awakened in that conscious 
soul. Days, months, years pass away, through 
all of which the soul is expanding, the intellect 
growing, moral principles are being settled, char- 
acter is forming ; and all this takes place under 
the eye of the parents. 

This educating a young mind is a difficult pro- 
cess. Some people bring up their children with 
a relish for the most marvelous tales, silly ro- 
mances, adding to their culture the love of the 
circus and the theater. 

Bring them up with a contempt for all useful 
knowledge and all honorable occupation, and they 
will spend their days in novel-reading. They 
will enjoy reading the lives of pirates and mur- 
derers rather than the biographies of the good 
and great. 

One writer says that, in a class of thirty boys, 
brought up in this way, at the age of forty-five 
years one had been hung for murder, three as 
pirates, six had died in prison, seven had come 
to the common fate of vagabonds, the fate of ten 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 6$ 

was unknown, and only three became useful 
mechanics. 

But of forty boys educated in the strict school 
of the Puritans, at the age of fifty-five one was a 
member of Congress, one a supreme judge, two 
were judges of circuit courts, five were lawyers 
of respectability, three were physicians, fourteen 
were dead, and the remainder were honorable 
farmers and mechanics ; and, so far as known, 
not one of these was ever called before the bar 
of his country on a criminal charge. All had 
homes, and all were respectable. 

All history proves the truth of that Scripture 
which says, " Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it," Obedience to rule is one of the first 
lessons every mortal coming into this world 
should learn ; and they who do not, in their 
very infancy, learn this, are liable to grow up 
with a love of disorder. Well may you ask 
yourself the question, "Who is sufficient for 
these things .-*" You may not be very well able ; 
but you must do the very best you can, and 
leave the result in the hands of God. 

We have somewhere come upon the following 
rules, which may be of service to you : 

I. Regard your children as having entered 
upon a life of immortality. 
5 



66 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

2. Heartily dedicate them to God, and train 
them up in the services of religion. 

3. Pray for them, and teach them to pray ; for 
we never forget the prayers of our childhood. 

4. Store their minds with useful knowledge, 
especially the Word of God. 

5. Set them a Christian example every day. 

6. Train them up to habits of industry, econ- 
omy, generosity, and other good traits. 

7. Check the first buddings of evil, and culti- 
vate the first indications of good or right feeling. 

8. Never rest satisfied until you see your chil- 
dren in the possession of converting grace. 

f The genius of patience must preside in the 
family. We must not let the hundred questions 
vex us, but answer them all if we can. And if 
the child is slow to learn, be patient ; for some 
of the world's greatest men were dull boys. If 
the child makes mistakes, remember you have 
made as many. Never frighten your child into 
trembling; but calm its fears, and make it trust 
you and be truthful. " Provoke not your children 
to wrath ; but bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord." And this you can only 
do with patience.y 

/ Home education involves intimacy, familiarity. 
The word we use to express our truest friendship 
comes from the Latin word which signifies a 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 6/ 

family. Between the members of a family there 
should be a spiritual oneness, a mutual likeness, 
a common bond of affection and interest. There 
is one thing we wish every reader particularly to 
remember ; that is, to be cheerful. You may 
weep yourself sick, and into the grave ; but . 
cheerful, happy homes are great health-producersy 

In the family, there should be no stiffness, no 
coldness ; but simplicity, and the deepest and 
purest affections. It is the place, of all others, 
to be most free ; the place of gown and slippers ; 
the place of innocent sport, and the unbending 
of dignified life. Divest yourself of all formal- 
ities, come right down to each other's hearts ; 
and you will send the blood into quicker cur- 
rents, and put rainbows over the heaven of 
your life. 

We have before remarked that the sunbeam is 
made up of millions of rays. So the sunlight of 
home is the combination of thousands of kind 
words, kind looks, kind acts. People need not 
be rich in order to be happy. The humble 
cottage is as open to the angels of God as the 
lordly palace. Home without the angels of 
kindness, patience, forbearance, and love, is not 
home ; and many a young man, nerved with 
the fires of ambition, has turned away to the 
sea, or the great world, because of the entire 



68 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

unattractiveness of home. Many a maiden has 
sought the love that home should have afforded 
in the gay and fashionable world, where all the 
evils of depraved humanity exist under the garb 
of outward good appearance. Many a one dies 
dishonored, because home was not loving and 
cheerful. 
/ A family should never be disturbed by angry 
contests. If parents do sometimes disagree, 
that disagreement should never be expressed 
before their children ; for, if it is, they will take 
the same liberty. And then parties will be 
formed, and strife will begin ; peace will take 
its departure, affections be alienated, and home 
will be clouded. } 

Whatever advantage there is in age and expe- 
rience must be used in behalf of the young. 
Every lesson a father can teach his son, or a 
mother her daughter, should be diligently com- 
municated. Many a father and mother have 
failed to appreciate their high duty here ; and, 
through a false modesty, lessons were untaught, 
until experience, perhaps, has become the school 
where they have been learned in a way that has 
brought sorrow to the heart and a cloud on the 
life. Home is a school, where the lessons of the 
inner life are best learned ; and every parent is 
by nature a teacher in this school. The child 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 69 

looks to you. God requires you to train up 
your children in the paths of virtue ; to teach 
his statutes to them, and educate them for his 
kingdom. 

Every home must have law. Parental author- 
ity must be enforced. The more implicitly the 
child is taught to obey, the happier it will be. 
Suffer your children to grow up in disregard of 
law, and they can not be good members of 
society. To allow your child to disobey your 
commands, presuming that these are reasonable, 
is to sin against God and betray your trust. 
/ Never contend with a child, but compel obedi- 
ence. There are two ways of doing <his : First, 
with reason ; secondly, by persuasion. Show 
the child the reasonableness of your mandates. 
Never scold a child. Talk with it patiently ; but 
be very calm. If you allow yourself to grow 
angry and scold, the child, being human, may 
grow angry and scold you, break with you, and 
you will lose your influence. i\lways let the 
rod be the last resort. Never keep a rod in 
view ; never banter the spirit to conflict, by 
heaping on it your threats of what you will do — 
and then never do it. But, then, law must not 
be enforced in the heat of passion. Be cool, be 
calm, or your words will not have weight.) 

Teach your child self-government. An old 



70 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

writer has said : " Cultivate liberality, as opposed 
to greediness ; gentleness, instead of passion." 
If he is sulky, charm him out of it by encour- 
aging frank good-humor. If he is indolent, ac- 
custom him to industry. If pride makes his 
obedience reluctant, curb him by counsel and 
wholesome discipline. Remember that a rod 
properly used is a Divine institution. 

Do not make the mistake of holding out to 
your child the idea that you will leave it a for- 
tune, and therefore exertion will not be needed. 
You can not do your child a greater wrong. 
Young men who begin life where their fathers 
leave off, usually leave off where their fathers 
began — poor. There is no class of young men 
we pity so much as those who are unfortu- 
nately born rich. They seldom make scholars — 
scarcely ever become strong men. The only 
thing many of them can do, is to speak French 
badly, and play billiards well. 

The home must be more attractive than the 
saloon, the theater, or the ball-room, and parents 
must try to make it so. But can we do it ? you 
ask. You can, in most cases ; at least you can 
try, and God will bless your efforts. Then, if 
you fail, you will have no self-reproaches. The 
most effectual way to do all we have said, is to 
make home what every home should be — a Chris- 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 7 1 

tian home. There is nothing in the world so 
beautiful as such a home. Here all the better 
feelings of the human heart have full play and 
sweep. Such it was intended to be by its great 
Founder — man's domestic shrine, where heart 
may ever speak with heart, in the truest, in the 
holiest communings. 

The busy world shut out, the cares of the 
world thrown aside or forgotten, the lamp lighted, 
the fire blazing on the hearth, the children happy 
as the birds of Spring. We know some might 
call this '' confusion worse confounded ;" but they 
mistake. It is the sunny side of life ; and you 
have no more right to put a stop to all this than 
you have to forbid the singing of the birds, the 
blooming of the flowers, or the twinkling of the 
stars. This is the religion of nature, and just 
such religion as every family in the world ought 
to have. It is a religion which is fraught with 
health and happiness, that prolongs life and 
sweetens it.- From such homes go forth cheer- 
ful men and women, to bless the world in which 
they live with love and smiles. 

But there is still a higher kind of religion — 
the religion which takes form, true devotion. 
The reading of God's Word as a family duty, the 
singing of hymns of praise, coming together at 
the family altar, old and young appearing before 



72 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

God imploring - his blessing, and invoking his 
spirit to guide them in the steps of life. Ah, 
there is no scene more beautiful than a relig- 
ious household gathered together at the time of 
prayer — heart beating with heart, hope kindling 
with hope, love flowing with love, and faith 
mounting the skies with faith ! Domestic happi- 
ness has well been said to be " the only bliss 
which has survived the fall." 

Look, now, upon that family, and tell me, does 
it not present a picture of heaven ? If angels of 
God visit us on earth, we think they come often- 
est to the family where pure love dwells, sweet- 
ened with fervent piety. 

-' But do not distort religion into a wrong phase. 
Piety does not dry up the sweet flow of life, it 
increases it. Religion makes people cheerful, 
because it makes them happy. Long faces and 
woe-begone looks do well for the Pharisee and 
hypocrite ; but the true Christian carries sufi- 
shine in his face, and joy runs all through his 
life. There is a good deal of genuine religion in 
the play of innocent childhood, and that home 
where all is hushed and muffled and silent is 
not v^^orthy the name. Such homes repel rather 
than attract to them the heart of childhood and 
youth. ; 

But what can we do to retain our children in 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 73 

the paths of virtue ? Do your best, some will 
go from you ; do nothing, and all may go. 

Music is one of the charms of life ; and every 
human being loves it, the savage no less than 
the civilized. And there is scarcely a family 
that can not have music of some kind, vocal or 
instrumental. Music is heaven's own gift to 
man. It cheers his weary hours through the 
day, as it comes wafted on the air to the place of 
his toil. The mother rocks her babe to sleep 
with a sweet lullaby, and the morning is ushered 
in with Creation's grand anthem. Let your chil- 
dren sing. Sing with them, if you can. Procure 
an instrument of some kind, if it is possible. 
Music is refining, it is attractive, it accords well 
with home; it rears life into poetry, and be- 
comes one of its chief ornaments. So the cul- 
tivation of flowers. Every cottage should have 
its flower-bed. Flowers are God's angels that 
brighten our life with their cheer and beauty. 

" Flowers are the smiles of God's goodness." 

Let the home be relieved of its monotony by 
suitable sports. Encourage whatever is right, 
but nothing that is wrong. Cultivate in your 
child moral principle in the very start. If any 
thing is proposed that may lead to wrong, show 
it to be such. Do this early in life. Teach 



74 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

moral principles among the first lessons of life. 
These principles, properly taught, will "grow 
with their growth, and strengthen with their 
strength," and they will be thus guarded against 
evil in the future. Let amusement be resorted 
to as a recreation ; but teach the child that life 
is more than a mere amusement : it is a reality, 
a preparation for another world, a better world. 

There is one other point which we must not 
pass by unnoticed, and that relates to health of 
body. As in moral health, so in physical. You 
have a great responsibility to meet. Much of 
^he mortality among children is unnecessary. 
/ Children should be taught habits of regularity, 
for it promotes health. Exercise and play are 
as essential to a child's growth as sunshine is 
needful to the growth of flowers. But there are 
many who think more of their pigs and cattle 
than they do of their children J 

The lives of children are often unduly exposed 
for the sake of fashion. 

We have been to many a funeral where the 
minister has spoken solemnly of the mysteries 
of Divine providence in calling away the child. 
And we doubt not this may be true in many 
cases ; but it is a conviction we have, that death 
to the child often occurs from the almost unpar- 
donable vanity of the parents in sending them 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 75 

out into the cold winds of December, with low- 
necked and short-sleeved dresses, to parade their 
symmetrical forms before the gaze of the passers- 
by. Such vanity displeases God, makes the devil 
glad, and kills the child ; and then it is called a 
mysterious dispensation of Divine providence ! 

Cultivate the spirit of education. Place in the 
hands of your child those books that are in- 
structive as well as pleasing. Do not vex a 
young mind by compelling it to read books 
beyond its years. We once knew a lady who 
required her boy of a dozen Summers to sit in 
the house all day on the Sabbath and read "Bax- 
ter's Saint's Rest." Of course, that boy wished 
Baxter had never been born ; and who could 
blame him .-* 

Money spent for good books is by no means 
thrown away. By "good books" we do not 
mean works on "justification by faith," nor dry 
dissertations on Church history. These are all 
good in their places and for certain ages and 
conditions of mind. But we refer to those pub- 
lications which attract the young mind, which 
contain the very pith of the Gospel in beautiful 
story, interspersed with anecdote, made brill- 
iant with illustration, and written to please the 
young. A few dollars saved out of other 
expenses, and put into a library of this kind. 



J6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

will come back with more than ten per cent 
interest. 

But you say, "The Sabbath-school furnishes 
just this reading." It does it in part, as far as 
it can ; but it can not do all. Every family 
should have a library of its own. But you plead 
poverty. No matter. We say, Start a library. 
If you have only four books — a Bible, hymn- 
book, dictionary, and almanac — put them upon a 
shelf, with all their dignity ; and if you have no 
shelf, get a few boards and make shelves. Then 
take care of the books ; add to them whenever 
you can, one by one — put there nothing but 
what you know is good — and in a few years you 
will see the results of your labor in a good 
library and cultivated young people around you. 
But you say, " We have access to the * Ladies' 
Library,' and other libraries." These are great 
blessings, or ought to be ; but it is not equal to 
owning books yourself You want solid and 
standard books, as well as story-books. We think 
the taste, now, is mostly for something light. 
In most of our library-rooms, one can pick out 
the solid books by their clean and beautiful ap- 
pearance. They are too solid to be handled, and 
there they stand unmarred. But cast your eyes 
over the shelves, and see the worn, soiled book, 
and, depend upon it, there is a charming novel 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 77 

almost every time, which, when you have read, 
you have been pleased, but little profited. Fic- 
tion is the rage every-where, alas! too much. 

Then, there is the religious newspaper, which 
should be taken in every family. It will cost 
from one to three dollars a year, and come 
freighted every week with every kind of news 
from the four quarters of the globe, with poetry 
and art, with politics and religion, with wit and 
amusing anecdote ; and yet you deny yourself 
such an educator because it costs you the pitiful 
sum of five cents a week, while you would not 
go without your tobacco at any price. 

Parents owe it to their children to supplement 
all the libraries in the city, and the world, by a 
collection of books of their own — books that 
shall be companions of the home life. You owe 
it to your children to put into their hands, as 
they are growing up, a first-class weekly paper, 
and thus turn their minds to the pursuit of use- 
ful knowledge. Thereby you will keep out pub- 
lications of a vicious character. Put on your 
shelves, this year, Bancroft's " History of the 
United States ;" next year, Macaulay's " History 
of England," which is not complete, but it is as 
attractive as a poem. Put there such works as 
Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella." Put there 
Ruskin's writings ; Lives of Bunyan, Luther, 



yS THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Whilefield, Wesley, Chalmers. Then, spend 
your evenings with your children ; read to them, 
and have them read to you. Do you say this 
savors of Utopia.? We answer, we have known 
several families, poor families, who did this, and 
they surpassed their neighbors in culture and 
refinement. One-tenth of the money laid out 
for that which is absolutely useless in many of 
our families, would make scholars of our chil- 
dren, and might save them not only from ignor- 
ance, but from vice. 

Give children liberty, but do not give them too 
much. Restraint is wholesome ; and a child that 
can not bear restraint will grow up selfish, in- 
stead of generous, and will never be happy, 
never be useful in society. Let boys be out at 
all hours of the day or night, and their ruin be- 
comes almost certain. Under cover of darkness, 
and away from the gentle influences of home and 
parental restraint, they are in a school where 
profligacy is learned, where vicious thoughts en- 
ter the mind, and where, step by step, they go 
downward through vile conversation and sinful 
actions, until they become morally debased — 
ruined. 

A home should be religious. How else can 
all its ends be accomplished .'* The family is 
God's first government. " It is not good for 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 79 

man to be alone." We know some will ask, who 
can come up to this standard ? Perhaps you can 
not ; but come as near it as 3^ou can. And you 
can only do this by seeking Divine aid, taking 
your families with you to the Throne of Grace. 
If you are Christ-like, as you ought to be, if you 
take the Bible as your guide, you may succeed. 
Your children will reverence your piety, and obey 
your words. 

It will aid the work if you take the children 
to church. In the olden times, the whole family 
went to meeting; all went, even the baby. 
There was no other way ; it was a veritable 
necessity. Well, our opinion is, the baby, which 
is too young to appreciate the service, had better 
be kept at home, unless the mother's getting 
there depends on taking the child. We would 
rather have the baby come, and even cry a little 
once in a while, than to have the young mother 
perpetually deprived of the benefits of church- 
going. Yet the prudent mother, if she take her 
child, will sit near the door, where she can retire 
if the occasion shall require it. 

But when the child arrives at an age when 
even a portion of the services can be appreciated, 
it should be taught to go, systematically ; not to 
sit in some distant seat in the gallery, but in 
the family-seat. It should be taught order and 



So THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

regularity, and thus give it the habit of going to 
church ; for you know we do much from habit — 
it has a wonderful power over us. Associate 
with the lives of the children the hymns we 
sing and the solemn services of the Church, and 
in after-Ufe these things will not be forgotten by 
them. 

Let us sum it all up: A home should be a 
shrine of devotion to God. Have there a family 
altar, and take as much pains to lead your chil- 
dren to Christ as you do to get them into society. 
Be as careful to lead them into heart-purity as 
you are to make them fashionable. 

O, the judgment of the -Great Day will reveal 
some strange inconsistencies, even on the part of 
Christian parents in relation to their children! 
Endeavor to make home the most attractive 
place in the world to your children. Let it be 
cheerful with music and conversation ; let whole- 
some literature and innocent sports have their 
place in the family. If not, there will be some 
excuse for their seeking enjoyment elsewhere. 
Make home in every sense what it should be, 
and in most cases the young people will love it ; 
and they will go from it cheerful men and women, 
to bless the world with similar homes. 

We have said there is nothing in the world so 
lovely as a beautiful Christian home. It may be 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 8 1 

poor in what the world calls grandeur, but rich 
in all that makes a true home. How the heart 
clings to it ! The weary son of toil lays down 
the implements of labor as the 

" Length'ning shadows, o'er the mead, 
Proclaim the close of day." 

And where does he go ? Home, to his hum- 
ble cot, where his faithful spouse and prattling 
babe wait to greet and cheer him with love and 
smiles. What a heaven home is to the working- 



man 



The man of office and of business, distracted 
with care, saddened with losses, vexed with dis- 
appointment, closes his ledger, locks his safe, 
fastens his doors, and retreats from the battle- 
field of a busy life to his home, where he lives 
in true and loving hearts. There is a hand to 
wipe away the sweat from his brow, a voice of 
music to soothe his anxious spirit ; there are 
little eyes that sparkle and little hearts that gush 
with life at his coming. Home is our paradise 
on earth. Life, with its activities and ceaseless 
labors, is but dry prose. Home, with its cheer 
and love and religion, is the poetry of our earthly 
existence : 

" The light of home, how still and sweet 
It gleams from yonder cottage door, 
The weary laborer to greet 

When the rough toils of day are o'er ! 
6 



82 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Sad is the soul that does not know 
The blessings which those beams impart, 

The cheerful hopes and joys that flow 
To lighten up the heaviest heart 

Around the light of home." 

It is one of the sad thoughts of life that our 
families must soon be broken up. It is a decree 
of God. That fire must die out, that light must 
grow dim ; father and mother will pass away to 
the tomb, to the "undiscovered country;" the 
children will grow up, and depart to other homes, 
which they will form for themselves. 

But is there no relief.^ no silver lining to this 
cloud .? ** 

Go into your garden, where all the flowers are 
in full bloom. Those flowers will fade and fall, 
those leaves will wither and crisp at the touch 
of the Autumn frosts ; those stalks and stems 
will crumble under the chafing winds of Winter. 

But shall they not bloom again ? O, yes ; the 
ice-bands will melt away, the snows will dissolve, 
the balmy breezes will come from the South, the 
warm sun will shine out of the heavens, the 
flowers will bloom again and fill the air with 
sweetest aroma. 

And so shall it be with our families. Is not 
this our hope ? Would we have it otherwise ? 
The Winter of death will lay all this fair heritage 
waste, the frosts will nip the early blossoms, the 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 83 

snows of Winter will hide us all beneath their 
white folds; but the death- winter will pass away, 
the light of heaven will pierce the grave; the Sun 
of righteousness will rise in glory, " with healing 
in his wings ;" the flowers that have faded shall 
bloom again, the friends that have parted meet 
again. This is our hope. 

There was one day in our own personal his- 
tory that will never fade out of the recollection. 
Many have had a like experience. O, how well 
we remember that day! It was in Spring-time, 
just when the birds began to come from the 
South, when erst the patches of green grass told 
us of the warm days and bright flowers of the 
coming Summer. 

Around the cottage where we lived, there was 
gathered a group of neighbors, old and young. 
Men were there who came not very often, strang- 
ers our young eyes never saw before. We re- 
member the solemn religious service, the hushed 
whisper, the muflled footsteps ; we yet can see 
those strong men take that coffin on a bier and 
bear it away. We can yet hear the mournful 
tolling of the church-bell, yet see the slow pro- 
cession winding its way toward the grave-yard. 

From that strange, sad day, we went forth a 
motherless boy to battle with the great world, 
to climb the rugged hills of life, to go into its 



84 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

deep valleys, to traverse its wide plains. Our 
angel had departed ; home was never home after 
that sad day as it had always been before. 

Yet she whom we loved "is not dead, but 
sleepeth." We honor her and cherish the mem- 
ory of that mother, though more than a quarter 
of a century has passed since her dying hand 
touched our boyish face, and gave a dying moth- 
er's blessing. We shall meet her again. She 
lives in our life, and shall till we meet in heaven. 
It is our ambition, and has been ever since we 
turned from that grave, to be as good a man as 
she wished and prayed we might be. 

A STORY. 

There was a gentle rap at the door of an old 
man's cottage, one cold December night, by the 
hand of a stranger seeking shelter from the 
storm that raged without. The venerable man 
rose with dignity and grace becoming his age 
and his nature, and bid the stranger enter. 

"You are all alone," said the stranger to the 
old man, " I perceive." 

"Alone, and not alone," said he, in a subdued 
and solemn voice. 

"What may I understand, my aged friend, by 
your being 'alone, and yet not alone .^' " said the 
stranger. 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 83 

" Sir," said the venerable man, fixing his eyes 
upon his stranger guest, "this was once the home 
of a happy family ;" and the old man arose and 
looked out of the window, as if to hail the com- 
ing of those he loved ; but his heart seemed too 
full for utterance. He stood gazing on the dark- 
ness without ; but not a word he spoke. 

"Tell me your story," said the stranger to the 
lonely occupant of the cottage. 

A moment of silence passed, and then the old 
man said : 

"Many years ago there lived, in this house, a 
family whose hearts were bound in one. There 
used to be here a good and gentle woman ; 
but she is not here to-night, sir;" and the old 
man wiped the falling tear from his withered 
cheek, and again walked and looked out of the 
window on the dark and dreary night. Return- 
ing to his seat, he fixed his eyes upon the blazing 
brands ; and, after a moment's meditation, turn- 
ing to the stranger, he said : " Once there were 
here three happy children, but they are not here 
to-night, sir;" and again he walked and looked 
out of the window. "Ah, she was a darling little 
girl, was Mary, with her bright eyes, her golden 
ringlets, and her loving little arms that she used 
to throw around my neck as I came home from 
my work, sir!" and the big tear stole down his 



86 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

cheek. He continued : *' One day when I came 
home, Mary was sick. Her eyes were dull, her 
cheeks were feverish ; and, sir, she died." And, 
walking to the window, he said : " Sir, she lies 
yonder; but it's too dark to see." 

"Two little boys were left, sir; and you may 
be sure I loved them. One day the youngest 
was skating on the ice, and it broke through, 
and he was swept away down the current of 
the great river, and we never saw him again. 
Ah, sir, Johnny was a beautiful boy. Then my 
eldest, and only one left, was seized with a 
strange sickness; and he died there, in that 
corner of the room, and we buried him along 
with Mary, sir, just over the ravine on that 
sunny knoll; but it's too dark to see." And the 
old man sighed as he walked to the window, and 
looked out on the wild, dark night. 

"Then Agnes and I were all alone here; and 
then she,*poor woman, could not stand up under 
such blows. She grew pale and feeble ; and, 
sir, one day she lay down on that cot, and said 
she was not well. She grew very sick, and the 
doctor said she must die. And she died, sir; 
and we buried her just over the ravine, along 
with Willie and Mary." And again the old man 
walked to the window, and looked out upon the 
pitchy darkness of the night. 



THE FAMILY ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN. 8/ 

And thus he sat and looked with tear-dimmed 
eyes on the blazing fire of the hearth. 

" Now, sir," said he, " I am all that is left of 
the family. First went Mary to her angel-home, 
then Johnny; then Willie and Agnes, to meet 
them on the shining shore. We are nearly all 
gone. I am all that is left." 

And he walked across the room, and took from 
its place, on the shelf beside the clock, the old 
family Bible, brown with age, with tear-marks on 
many a page. He laid it on the table, and said : 

" Stranger, Agnes and I used to read this book 
together every night and morning. We read it 
to our children. Now they are all gone away to 
the distant land, and I am left to read it alone. 
Here, stranger, I find my comfort. It tells me 
of a spirit-land, it tells me of heaven. I shall 
meet my dear ones again — my Agnes, my Willie, 
my Johnny, my Mary — by and by." 

And, as he spoke of that better land, his face 
lost its look of sadness, his eye grew bright 
with the hopes of the Christian. 

"Yes," said he, "it will not be long. My locks, 
stranger, you see, are getting white. I am trem- 
bling now. I shall soon lie down by the side of 
my loved wife and children, just over there on 
the Uttle knoll ; but I shall hail them where they 
who meet shall never part." 



88 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

And the venerable man ceased to mourn. 
His weeping was turned into joy. 

So it is with us all. Our days are passing 
away, our homes have a short history. One after 
another leaves this home on earth. Soon all will 
be gone. O, happy will it be if we all meet 
again ! Earth has its ills, but Heaven heals them 
all. Life has its sorrows, but Heaven will pay 
us back with joys eternal, immortal. 

"As distant lands beyond the sea, 

When friends go thence, draw nigh; 
So heaven, when friends have thither gone, 
Draws nearer from the sky. 

And as those lands the dearer grow, 

When friends are far away, 
So heaven itself, through loved ones dead, 

Grows dearer day by day." 




CHAPTER V. 



jaborc' a«a |ig gewa^a. 




*^The noblest men we knora on earth 

Are men whose hands are brown with toil; 
Who, backed by no ancestral graves. 

Hew down the woods and till the soil, 
And win thereby a nobler fa7?ie 
Than follows kiiig's or warrior'' s name,''^ 

O where we will, we see men at work. 
We feel, at times, a degree of self-re- 
proach, too, as we ride leisurely along 



with the hum of industry on every side of us. 

There is, however, no need of any reproaches ; 
for, even in our frequent drives with the Black 
Horse and Carryall, we are busy with our 
thoughts, picking up many an illustration for a 
sermon ; and, coming into such direct contact 
with nature, that we are only the better fitted 
for our work. 

Too much seclusion has spoiled many a good 
man's health and happiness, as well as usefulness. 

89 



90 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Bodies made torpid by inaction have had their 
influence on the world's theology. Sour stom- 
achs have made a great many sour ministers 
Stones and trees, as well as books, have sermons 
in them. The great world around us is a con- 
stant sermon, delivered in God's great temple to 
preachers as well as laymen. 

In what a busy world we live ! Every thing is 
in motion. If we cast our eyes into the vaults 
of space above us, all is motion there. Those 
worlds, on which the eye looks with wonder, go 
onward in their course, as if keeping time to 
some lofty anthem sung by spirit-voices before 
the throne of God. The comet rushes forward 
in its eccentric orbit, it may be to become, in 
the course of the ages, a world like our own, on 
whose bosom rational beings shall have a home, 
to add to the systems which compose the uni- 
verse. Mysterious travelers ! They may possibly 
be the "gulf-streams" of the heavens, whose 
mission is to diffuse some subtile force through 
space, as the Gulf-stream of the Atlantic pours 
the accumulated heat of the tropics upon the icy 
poles of the North. Or it may be they are the 
balance-wheels which the Almighty Builder has 
put in motion to preserve and equalize the stu- 
pendous system of heavenly mechanics. But is 
it not true, at least, that,, whatever their mission 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD, 9 1 

may be, they are not idle ? They come and go, 
through the centuries ; and look down on us once 
in a thousand years ; and then return to the mys- 
terious depths of space from which they came. 
Look out on the heavens at night, and each star 
is a busy world ; each cluster, a busy system of 
worlds ; ' many of them far grander than our own, 
it may be, — and all this glittering host is tuned 
to an anthem of praise to Him that sitteth upon 
the throne of the universe. With what beauty 
did the poet Addison sing of this wonderful 
system ! 

" What though in solemn silence all 
Move round the dark terrestrial ball; 
What though no real voice nor sound 
Amid the radiant orbs be found ; 
In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice, 
Forever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that made us is Divine." 

But our. own world is active ; it teems with 
life and motion every-where. Go to the ocean, 
and look into its dark caverns, and what life and 
activity you will discover ! In the beginning God 
said, " Let the sea bring forth abundantly ;" and 
the sea has obeyed the omnipotent decree. The 
mighty whale, the leviathan of Job, whose mo- 
tions set the waters to foaming ; the voracious 
shark, that dashes through those dark waters 
like a thunder-bolt through the cloud ; and all 



92 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL, 

the lesser tribes in uncounted myriads, until you 
reach the animalculae, where millions may be 
seen sporting in a drop of stagnant water, — how 
almost infinite their numbers, and how ceaseless 
their activities ! And this whole mass of life 
moves to its appointed destiny with all the pre- 
cision of clock-work. Some of these living 
wonders seem almost motionless — as the sea- 
anemone, which clings to its rocky home when 
the tide has retired ; or the tiny barnacle, which 
makes the sea-rock look gray — yet all of these 
have their mission, and are never idle. The 
ocean, on whose sandy beach we have so often 
passed the sultry days of August, is one vast 
work-house, in which ten thousand times ten 
thousand living beings ply the hammer and the 
saw with never-failing skill, while through them 
all the Infinite Creator 

" Treasures up his bright designs, 
And works his sovereign will." 

Not less has the Almighty stamped the seal 
of activity on things terrestrial. The birds of 
the forest are a busy, active host. The humble 
lark, in her lowly meadow-nest, sounds the note 
of action ; and forest and meadow ring with their 
myriad notes of praise. On all the earth, the 
animal kingdom moves forward to its appointed 
destiny. From the massive elephant, whose 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 93 

ponderous tread jars the earth, down through all 
earth's uncounted hosts, until you reach the in- 
sect or infusoria which can only be seen by the 
microscope, there is nothing but activity — the 
most constant, unvarying, and beautiful. 

, And now, let me ask you, is this not the ar- 
rangement of God ? Has not the Infinite Father 
made all nature to be man's teacher ? Is not 
every busy ant, every humming bee, every insect, 
every thing that hath life, the workmanship of 
God ? He has ordained their natures, and given 
them a mission, a life. He has a purpose in all 
he has made. There is as evident a design in 
the laws of life and animal activity, as in the 
mechanical laws which govern the worlds as 
they roll onward in their orbits. God is in all 
his works. Their foundations are laid in wisdom, 
and in goodness has he made them all. 

But, let us inquire, is man an exception to this 
rule ? or is he also to be governed by this law 
of universal activity } 

The necessity of labor has its foundation in 
the laws of life. If we examine into man's phys- 
ical and mental constitution, we shall find that 
he is made for activity, for labor of some kind. 
Why have we the power of rapid locomotion ? 
That we may go from place to place in the pur- 
suit of either business or pleasure. Thus moving 



94 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

about, we meet our fellow-men, in commerce, in 
trade, and in the social relations of life. These 
powers were not bestowed on man to sit in the 
shade of palms, or lounge awa}^ his existence in 
the lap of indolence, but for industrious pursuits, 
such as we shall show to be ennobling alike to 
mind and heart. 

Look at the skill of the human hand, as it 
works out and fashions matter into forms whose 
symmetry and perfection astonish us. Take 
your watch ; inspect its delicate wheels, and the 
beautiful adjustment of its various parts so that 
the hour-hand moves round with the sun. Or 
examine that fine gold-chain which dangles at 
your bosom ; how perfect it is, and how wonder- 
ful the machine that cut, joined together, and 
polished the links which forrn it. See, will you.^ 
that splendid locomotive, that walks its iron 
pathway like a thing of life. Or look at the 
complicated workmanship of your sewing-ma- 
chine, or your piano. Go into any of our facto- 
ries, and see those curious looms employed in 
weaving the various fabrics used in our ward- 
robes. Think of the inventive genius which called 
all these machines into existence, and the skill 
of the hands that formed them, and tell us, was 
not all this planned by Him who made all things.'* 
Was not this power of invention, this ability to 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 95 

fashion matter, designed by the great Architect 
of our being ? We surely can not fail to be im- 
pressed with the truth of the proposition' that 
activity is a law of our very existence. 

Again, we may observe another fact. Man is 
the most powerful of all the beings which God 
has placed on the earth. We speak not of man 
in the aggregate, but of man as an individual. 
No animal is equal to him in power. He is 
stronger than the horse, whose neck. Job says, 
is "clothed with thunder." He is mightier than 
the lion whose fierce growl echoes through the 
African jungles. He is more powerful than the 
slow, plodding ox that lies heavily against the yoke. 

Man's power lies in the fact that he is a 
mechanic. His mind commands, the elements 
obey him. The engineer upon the railway is, 
perhaps, our best illustration of this. There lies 
on the track a ponderous train of many freighted 
cars. What shall move^ this mighty mass.'* 
Nothing but some powerful engine. The engine 
is made and fastened to the train, but it does not 
move. The engine is only inert matter. You 
kindle a fire in the furnace, and the steam is 
generated in the boiler; but yet it does not 
move. Now, see that man take his" place 
on the platform. He wills that this train shall 
move. He lays his hand upon the lever — opens 



g6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the throttle-valves; the pent-up steam obeys his 
mandate ; the mighty wheels begin to revolve ; 
the ponderous train is all in motion ! Had not 
the man willed, it never would have moved an 
inch from its place. 

Mind is the great power in the universe. This 
it is that is supreme ; the forces of nature are 
subordinate to mind. It was mind, acting upon 
material forces, that moved the train. 

If we can see more distinctly through a pair 
of spectacles than we can without them, then the 
spectacles sustain a relation to the mind, or spir- 
itual being, quite like that which is sustained by 
the health of eye ; for the body is only the house 
in which the soul or spirit dwells. It is the mind, 
not the physical eye, that sees. 

To illustrate still further : the soldier, who 
walks on crutches, walks just as surely as if he 
had not been maimed in battle. It is the soul 
which pants for home and friends ; and the 
crutch becomes, for the time, a part of himself; 
on it the soul travels. And so, when we speak 
of a man's strength, he makes material forms and 
forces the media on which the mind acts ; and 
hence a child, with the weight of its hand on a 
lever of sufficient length, will move a weight 
which would defy the strength of a hundred 
horses. Is it not true, then, that man is the 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 97 

most powerful being in the world, holding in his 
hand the reins of force, guiding it into paths of 
his own marking, and making it subservient to 
his uses ? 

All this is implied in the words of God, where 
he says : " Let them have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over 
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every 
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." 

That all animate creation is subject to man, no 
one doubts. That, in the use of steam, electric- 
ity, chemical agencies, the sunbeam, the winds, 
and mechanical forces, he is master "over all the 
earth," is as apparent as any one thing in his 
history. In the language of Young, 

** How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful, is man ! 
How passing wonder he who made him such, 
Who centered in our make such strange extremes !" 

But all this is a pledge of the goodness of God 
to man, who is thus elevated above the beasts of 
the field. To him, only, is given dominion over 
fish and fowl, beast and creeping thing. He, 
alone, controls the forces of the material world. 

How often has the question been asked, Was 

not this destiny of labor the fruit of the Fall in 

Eden } We know it is a common opinion that, 

if sin had not entered into the heart of the race, 

7 



98 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

mankind would not have been doomed to con- 
stant toil. Let it, however, be. understood, that 
to labor was man's appointed destiny ; it was his 
normal condition before the Fall, and his neces- 
sary condition after it. Before the Fall, labor 
was sweet ; after that, it became bitter. Before 
this dreadful lapse, *' God took the man whom he 
had made, and put him into the garden, to dress 
it and to keep it." Adam was not created to be 
an idler, to lie in the shade of palms in inglorious 
indolence, while all nature was active around 
him. His business was to "dress and keep" the 
garden ; but subsequently he was doomed to 
"earn his bread by the sweat of his brow." Nor 
was he created to endure the drudgery of toil 
forever ; but to be active, to use his powers, to 
invent machinery, to command the elements. 
Sin, however, has sent him to hard fields, in 
which there is no dishonor, but hardship. He 
will rise above it ; and when the emancipation 
comes, and come it will, he will be the same 
active being he is now, but will be a king en- 
throned over the earth. 

God has planned the world for action. When 
he made it, he wound it up for all time. Its 
wheels are revolving, its pendulum swings across 
the arc of time, whose seconds are the centuries 
of the world's life. 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 99 

We love to look upon the labor of the hand ; 
for it is written in the great book of nature that 
no idler shall blot the fair face of this beautiful 
world-heritage, and he who idles away life, an 
inglorious drone in this hive of activity, deserves 
to be cast out ; for idleness is crime — crime against 
nature, crime against God. It is written in the 
highest law, " Six days shalt thou labor and do 
all thy work." Not only is it crime, it is the 
mother of disease. Idleness acts on the human 
organism like rust on the blade. It weakens the 
muscles, which God intended should be strong. 
It vitiates the blood, which nature would have 
course through the body in a perpetual, life-pro- 
ducing stream. It dissipates the native energies 
of the whole man, converting him into a mere 
phantom, and makes him of less value than a 
butterfly. Idleness is the parent of poverty. 
Nine-tenths of all the pauperism in the world 
may be traced back to this prime cause, and its 
associate, intemperance. It thus fills our alms- 
houses, asylums and prisons, and puts a stigma 
on our race. "An idle brain is the devil's work- 
shop." 

Nothing, then, is more clear than that every 
human being should have something to do. 
Every man should work at some trade, follow 
some kind of occupation, either of hand or brain. 



100 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

The poor man is compelled to earn his living 
by hard toil. The rich man should earn his 
daily bread; and he who is either too indolent 
or too proud to work, is not too good to starve. 
What sight is more offensive than that of a 
man, created in God's image, possessed of strong 
arm and good brain, walking the streets with his 
hands thrust down into his pockets, sponging, 
begging, or stealing a living; and, at the same 
time, saying to every one he meets, "The world 
owes me a living, and I am sure to get it ?" The 
world owes you a living } It owes you no such 
thing. What have you done to bring the world 
in debt to you ? What great work have you 
wrought .'* Have you recovered some Pompeii 
from the ashy tomb of the centuries .? Have 
you touched some desert with a magic wand and 
made it to teem with life ? Have you made some 
wilderness bud and blossom as the rose ? Have 
you gone forward on some grand mission of love 
and goodness, and converted the sorrows of man- 
kind into joys } Why do you thus flatter your- 
self that the world owes you a living ? Or have 
you startled mankind with some new invention 
that will give it a fresh lease of life through all 
coming time ? No ! Then how dare you say 
the world owes you a living } Ah, the world 
owes you nothing, but you owe the world a 



k 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 10 1 

thousand times more than you will ever be able 
to pay. Tax your powers to the utmost, do all 
you can from the moment you begin to live until 
you sink into the slumbers of the tomb, and you 
will die in debt to the world. 

The earth has given you a good home on 
her bosom ; year after year she has fed you with 
food convenient; the clouds have sped their way 
from sea to mountain, and mountain to valley, to 
drop their fatness at your feet ; the breezes 
have fanned your brow; the gushing spring has 
quenched your thirst; the fire has warmed you 
in Winter ; and a thousand beauties, in earth, air 
and ocean, have gladdened your eyes: and what 
have you done in return for all these gifts ? 
Nothing but loiter about the sidewalks of life, 
telling the multitudes that push by with active 
step, the world owes you a living ! Call to your 
mind the oft-quoted lines of an old poet, almost 
forgotten : 

" For me, kind nature wakes her genial powers, 
Suckles each plant, and spreads out all the flowers ; 
Annual for me the grass, the rose renew 
The juice nectarious, and the balmy dew; 
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings ; 
For me, health gushes from a thousand springs ; 
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise ; 
My footstool earth, my canopy the skies," 

There is genuine dignity in labor. It is God- 



102 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

like. "For in six days the Lord made the 
heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in 
them is, and rested on the seventh day." Thus 
the Creator has revealed himself to us as a 
worker. 

The dignity of labor arises out of the fact 
that it is in perfect harmony with the constitu- 
tion and course of nature, which is every-where 
and always active. Hence, man should have a 
calling of some kind ; and, if the man is to be 
active and industrious, the boy should be taught 
a trade or brought up to a profession. What is 
true of the boy, is also true of the girl. Every 
mother owes it to her daughter, that she teach 
her to do something useful to society and to feel 
that labor is honorable, that idleness is dishon- 
orable. We say, then, to every young man, Be 
a proprietor, if you can, but if you can not, then 
remember that it is equally honorable to be an 
employe. All trades are in themselves useful, 
and consequently honorable. The first man was 
a farmer, and this class of working-men have 
always been in the front rank. The smith who 
wields the heavy sledge upon the anvil, the mer- 
chant at his counter, the clerk at his desk, the 
lawyer at the bar, the physician by the bed of 
sickness, the nurse in the hospital, the shoe- 
maker on his bench, the maid-of-all work in the 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 103 

kitchen, and thus on through the whole cata- 
logue of vocations, — all are worthy ; and, though 
some of them may seem lowly, yet, in view of 
the fact that we are all dependent on each other, 
there is no good reason why one person should 
ever look down upon another because of inferior 
occupation. He who was prophet, priest, and 
king, thought it not beneath his royal dignity to 
gird himself with a servant's apron, and wash the 
feet of his brethren. 

"Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part : there all the honor lies." 

An eminent American statesman, some years 
ago, when speaking of society, compared it to a 
watch. "I have now in my hands," said he, "a 
gold watch, which combines embellishment and 
utility in happy proportions, and is often con- 
sidered a very valuable appendage to the person 
of a gentleman. Its hands, face, chain, and case 
are of chased and burnished gold. Its gold seals 
sparkle with the ruby, topaz, sapphire, and emer- 
ald. I open it, and find that the works — without 
which this elegantly furnished case would be a 
mere shell, those hands be motionless, and those 
figures without meaning — are made of brass. In- 
vestigate still further, and ask. What is the spring, 
by which all these are put in motion, made of .^ 
I am told it is made of steel. I ask, What is 



104 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Steel? The reply is, that it is iron which has 
undergone a certain process. So, then, I find 
the mainspring — without which the watch would 
always be motionless, and its hands, figures, and 
embellishments but toys — is not of gold, that is 
not sufficiently good ; nor of brass, that would 
not do ; but of iron. Iron, then, is the only pre- 
cious metal. And this watch is an emblem of 
society. Its hands and figures, which tell the 
hour of the day, resemble the master-spirits of 
the age, to whose movements every eye is di- 
rected. Its useless but sparkling appendages are 
the aristocracy. Its works of brass are the mid- 
dle class, by the increasing intelligence and 
power of which the master-spirits of the age are 
moved. And its iron mainspring, shut up in a 
box, always at work, but never thought of except 
when it is disorderly, broken, or wants winding 
up, symbolizes the laboring class, which, like the 
mainspring, we wind up by the payment of wages, 
and which classes are shut up in obscurity ; and, 
though constantly at work and absolutely neces- 
sary to the movement of society, as the iron 
mainspring is to the gold watch, are never 
thought of except when they require their wages 
or are in some want or disorder of some kind or 
another." 

This eloquent extract is in part true, and in 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 105 

part it is not. In countries where the masses of 
the people are shut up in profound ignorance, 
they are indeed quite forgotten by the so-called 
higher classes. But in this country it is not so. 
That there is in every land a class of people 
which answers to the useless parts of a watch — 
those who do nothing for society, mere hangers- 
on — is true. Nothing is more true than that the 
working men and women are the mainspring of 
society; and without their daily toil in the shop 
and on the farm, society would come to a stand- 
still. Our laboring men are honored; they are 
seen, felt. 

The Americans, as a class, are a laboring peo- 
ple, and their industries have been honored. We 
deem it truly noble to work in any department 
of industry. Our sturdy yeomanry, skillful me- 
chanics, and thrifty traders are our pride. We 
understand that labor elevates the whole people, 
that the best and happiest men are they whose 
days are passed in useful toil. In pagan China,' 
the emperor goes into the field once a year, and 
works with his own hands, to give to labor the 
royal sanction. 

That was a beautiful instance in Roman story, 
told in honor of the working-man. When the 
army of Minucius Felix, the Consul, was sur- 
rounded by enemies who were fighting against 



I06 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the Empire, and a dictator was necessary to 
secure the safety of the State, delegates were 
sent to summon the most eminent Roman to the 
post of responsibility. The man chosen was Cin- 
cinnatus, whom they found on his farm, plowing 
his own fields. The great Roman farmer laid 
aside the implements of toil, donned the soldier's 
garb, took command of the troops, marched them 
upon the enemy, rescued the country from its 
threatened peril, and then returned to the plow. 

Not much less grand was it, when Ulysses S. 
Grant left the place of active labor when our 
country was in peril, entered the army, rose rap- 
idly to the highest rank, marched his army from 
victory to victory, until he placed the Nation's 
flag on every fortress from which rebel hands 
had dragged it! Peter the Great worked at the 
trade of a ship-builder, with his own hands. 
David the King was a keeper of sheep on the 
plains of Bethlehem. In ancient mythology, we 
read that the stately Juno was given to Jupiter; 
the goddess Bellona was the spouse of the fiery 
Mars ; but to Vulcan, the strong-armed black- 
smith, the god of toil, they gave Venus, the 
goddess of beauty. This allusion, at least, 
serves as an illustration of a great principle. 

But a better illustration is at hand in the 
Bible, where we learn that Peter, James, and 



LABOR AND ITS RE\yARD. lO/ 

John were fishermen of GaHlee ; Luke was a 
physician ; Matthew was a tax-gatherer under 
the Romans; Paul, the "prince of the apostles," 
as he has been styled, was a tent-maker, who 
worked at his trade frequently for self-support, 
and then preached to the people on the Sabbath ; 
while Jesus was a carpenter by trade, working, 
until he was thirty years of age, with his reputed 
father, in the villages and houses of Galilee. 
Surely, the laboring-man may feel honored by 
the illustrious names which are found on the roll 
of working-men. 

America honors labor, in her promotion of 
laboring-men to the high places of trust. Many 
great men of the present day we might mention, 
but prefer to speak rather of the men of past 
generations. Washington was a practical sur- 
veyor and farmer, as well as commander-in-chief 
of the armies, and President of the United 
States. Franklin was a printer by trade. He 
rose to the highest fame as a man of science, 
and was distinguished as a Minister from the 
United States to the most elegant court, at that 
day, in Europe — the French. Our heroic Greene, 
of Revolutionary fame, was a blacksmith. War- 
ren, whose blood baptized the soil of the Old 
Bay State, at Bunker Hill, consecrating it forever 
to the cause of human liberty, was a practising 



I08 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

physician in the then "town of Boston." Sum- 
ter, like the youthful King of Israel, was a shep- 
herd. Roger Sherman was a shoe-maker. Ma- 
rion, Stark, Putnam, and Allen were farmers. 
Hancock was a ship-builder. Trumbull was an 
artist. 

And, while we honor labor and the laboring- 
men, they, in turn, honor their country. The 
genius of Liberty presides at the shrine of Amer- 
ican politics ; but the genius of Labor has made 
our country what it is. Go aboard that stately 
craft, at whose mast-head floats our ensign of 
liberty, and you can not but feel a righteous 
pride in your breast ; but look at the noble 
vessel on whose deck you stand — then you think 
of the genius and labor of Fulton, with no less 
gratitude than you do of Washington and his 
liberty-loving compatriots. Take your seat in 
the midst of your family, with the page of the 
new book bright before you — then remember that 
this is the product not only of genius, but of 
persistent labor. 

These sublime words of Inspiration are indeed 
replete with meaning : " Six days shalt thou 
labor." Here is the key of our independence, 
and the secret of human thrift. Here is the 
grand source of individual and national wealth 
and prosperity — our Eureka, that we shout in 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. IO9 

the ears of the world. But stop the forge- 
hammer, the saw, the plane, the wheel, and our 
glory would soon depart. 

The Divine prescription which says, " Six days 
shalt thou labor," means that we must be sys- 
tematic in all our energies ; commence Monday 
morning, and keep it up until Saturday evening. 
Always be employed in doing something ; have 
some good end in view. Work for ourselves ; 
work for others. Do good to every body. Drop 
a kind word here, and do a kind act there. Be 
saving of time, never wasting it in idle deeds or 
idle conversation ; for 

"Time destroyed 
Is suicide, where more than blood is spilt." 

Labor has its reward. The toiler toils not in 
vain. To the man of work, there comes the 
sweet consciousness that labor wears the crown 
in this busy world. " To him that overcometh, 
will I grant to sit with me on my throne." Labor 
enthrones us, in more senses than one. It de- 
velops us. What would the world be without it ? 
Labor in the mine brings forth the rich treasures 
of the earth ; the labor of the soil gives us bread. 
The labor of the shop places at our disposal the 
implements of our high civilization. For all we 
have, we are indebted to man as a laborer some- 
where. 



no THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

This world is fall of mutual dependencies. 
Every-where, whether we realize it or not, man 
is his "brother's keeper." The productions of 
one clime are developed by the toiling hand, and 
by the hand of our brother man they are trans- 
ferred, over land and sea, to other and distant 
parts of the world. 

The Creator has rendered the different parts 
of the earth unlike in their fruits, grains, and 
minerals, for the very. purpose of affording man 
employment, and of harmonizing the race and 
showing its unity. He has hid beneath a veil 
the secrets of science, that the brain may labor 
to bring them forth to light and use. He has 
hid the treasures of gold and silver in the 
earth's deep places, that the hand of man may 
labor to bring them forth. All our luxuries, all 
our necessities, come to us with the stamp of 
human genius and industry. The hat upon your 
head ; the coat on your back ; the rich and costly 
fabric you wear ; the shoe that protects your foot 
from the frozen earth ; the pin with which you 
fasten your collar or cuff, so small and simple ; 
the tiny needle, that emblem of household econ- 
omy ; the food you eat ; the bed on which you 
repose ; the walls that ward off the chill blast of 
a wintry night ; the roof that catches the falling 
rain ; the coach or car in which 3^ou ride for 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. 1 1 1 

profit or pleasure ; the watch on whose dial-plate 
you take your reckoning of time ; and the whole 
list of your wants, — all are stamped with the seal 
of human industry. 

But the highest reward is that which labor 
gives the laborer in personal development. Man 
is only and truly man when he spends his ener- 
gies of soul and body on some great enterprise, 
worthy of the genius and power of humanity. 
Hence, he who does not labor in some way is a 
failure. , 

Labor enriches. Property is one of the rewards 
of industry. Some obtain more than others ; but, 
then, inequality affords the opportunity of benev- 
olence. If all had enough, then none could know 
the blessedness of giving. Thus the poor have 
a mission as well as the rich ; the one to receive, 
the other to give — while blessings come to the 
giver above the receiver. 

Let us labor, then, for the development of the 
treasures of wealth and of science, which are laid 
up in store for all who will have them. Seek 
diligently for the highest perfection of manhood 
and womanhood. Put forth your best exertions, 
that you may lay up something to provide for 
your wants when the heart beats slowly and the 
eye grows dim with age. Labor, that you may 
have a dollar to put into the hand of a suffering, 



112 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

needy brother or sister, that may be reached out 
to you as you go along the journey of life. La- 
bor, that you may be a true man, that you may 
be godlike ; and never give up, but labor on. If 
you fail now, try again ; keep on trying. Success 
will come ; if not in this world, then in the next. 
Your labors, your disappointments, your poverty 
even, shall all work together for your good. Your 
labor, if performed in the right spirit, shall not 
be in vain. 

Work on, but do not worry. It is worry that 
eats up our lives — the worm of the soul, whose 
sting is fatal. Robust labor of hand or head 
makes us strong, and adds years to life. It is 
hard to put more on a man than he can bear. 
The mind, like the arch, gains strength from 
pressure. It is not the revolution of the wheel 
that destroys the machine, but the friction. As 
rust will eat up the blade, so worry will eat up 
the soul. Some one has well said, "Fear secretes 
acid, but love and trust are the sweet juices of 
life." 

Then, too, consider that all of our activities 
should be directed toward one single end — our 
high spiritual destiny. All should be laid at the 
feet of Christ, the world's -Redeemer. Every 
thing we do should have about it the aroma of 
goodness. Our life-calling, whatever it may be- — 



LABOR AND ITS REWARD. II3 

whether profession, mechanic art, or tiller of the 
soil — all should be made in some way contrib- 
utory to our highest interests,^ our moral uplifting 
and development. 

Then, gird on the apron ; make bare the stal- 
wart arm ; seize the sledge, the saw, or the plane ; 
strike the heated iron ; shape the oak or pine ; 
mold the plastic clay; fashion the liquid metal; 
measure the costly goods ; weave the useful fabric ; 
drive the shuttle at the loom, the pen at the desk. 
Let our streets echo to the heavy wheels of in- 
dustry ; let our valleys resound with the scream 
of the locomotive ; let our lakes, rivers, and seas 
be alive with the white-winged ships of com- 
merce ; let our marts of trade keep up their 
busy hum, — but let all these energies be conse- 
crated to the good of humanity. Thus shall we 
fulfill our life-mission, and work out the true 
destiny of the world. 

" God bless the noble working-men, 
Who rear the cities of the plain ; 
Who dig the mine, and build the ships, 
And drive the commerce of the main ! 
God bless them ! for their swarthy hands 
Have wrought the glory of our lands." 
8 



CHAPTER VI. 



;%b: g:^:et§H£ttx gi?ii§£tt». 



' ' Tis Revelation satisfies all doubts^ 
Explains all mysteries, except her own ; 
And so ilhiminates the path of life 
That fools discover it, and stray no more.'' 




HERE are people, not a few, who are 
forever finding fault with God for put- 
ting them in such a world as this. They 
call it a "mean world." 

The truth is, if one looks through a piece of 
green glass, every thing is green ; or through 
blue grass, every thing is blue. The world is 
very much as we view it. A light and cheerful 
heart puts beautiful colors on every thing — trans- 
forms every thing. So a gloomy and faithless 
heart hides every thing under a veil. 

It is our mission in life to look for the pure, 
the lovely, the good — not their reverse. We 
must not complain because there are thorns 
114 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 1 15 

growing on the rose-bush, but be glad to find the 
rose blooming on the thorn-bush. 

There are many dark days in each year ; 
but there are more that are bright. There are 
many ships wrecked, and railroad-trains smashed ; 
but how many ships are not wrecked, and how 
many trains go safely on their journey ! 

The world is beautiful. If any one doubts it, 
let him take a drive of only a few miles in the 
country, with his eyes open — see the fields 
clothed with verdure, inhale the sweet air on a 
balmy morning — and he will understand why 
David called upon the trees to " clap their 
hands" — a passage of Scripture which can only 
be understood by one whose heart is right, and 
who sees the trees. 

All nature speaks of God, tells of his wisdom 
and his power. How any one can see a field of 
corn or wheat growing, and yet be an atheist, is 
a mystery. 

These works of God show forth his glory. 
Even the smallest flower which lifts its blushing- 
face to receive the kiss of the passing breeze, can 
not be explained but by taking God into the ac- 
count. Men admit this, and turn and ask us. Is 
not this enough ? Why go further } What 
higher knowledge can there be than this } 

Nature does not teach us all we need to know. 



Il6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Nature can not tell us of Jesus Christ. It may 
illustrate the doctrine of the soul's immortality 
by its many analogies, but these do not prove it ; 
for analogy really proves nothing. Within the 
scope of natural religion we learn much ; but 
there are some truths which nature can not 
teach. Hence, the Scriptures come as a higher 
and special revelation. "All Scripture is given 
by inspiration." By this we are to understand 
that God raised up holy mxen, in olden times, to 
write certain things for our instruction. These 
writings constitute the Bible. 

Let us look at it for a moment. First, there 
is the historical part of the Bible, which is often 
a dry recital of names, births, and deaths. But 
this has its use in tracing back the lineage of 
Christ to Abraham, the head of the visible 
Church. Then, there is the doctrinal part, which 
deals in moral principles for the guidance of the 
mind. Again, we have the prophetical part, in 
which the prophets foretold coming events ; as 
in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, where the 
history of Christ is epitomized, and his character 
so fully described that skeptics have claimed that 
it must have been written since the days of the 
Savior. But we know that this book was com- 
posed by the prophet whose name it bears, eight 
hundred years before the birth of Jesus. 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. liy 

These several parts of the Bible are beautifully 
fitted together. They overlap and run into each 
other. History, doctrine, and prophecy, all are 
rolled into one Book of truth. 

We can go to yonder telegraph-office, and 
send a message to London. The iron wire runs 
through cities and villages, along valleys, and 
over mountains. Here, it spans a river ; and 
there, it plunges into the sea, and is lost to hu- 
man gaze for thousands of miles. Again, it rises 
from the ocean's bed, and pursues its way. We 
go and inquire of it, and it brings us messages 
from distant friends. The very words they speak 
come to us, and we can speak to them. So the 
line of truth comes to us, down over the ages. 
We can approach it to-day, and .receive a mes- 
sage from Moses or Elijah, John or Christ. That 
line runs through the historical parts, the doc- 
trinal portions, and the prophecies. All the 
books of the Bible have, running through them, 
this line of truth. Every subject in the Bible is 
a testimony in favor of the Redeemer of men. 
He is the center and the circumference, the sum 
and the substance, the beginning and the end, of 
"all revelation. 

Much is said in these days against creeds, as 
if they were very dangerous to our freedom. Yet 
nothinoc is more true than that all men have 



Il8 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

their creeds, written or unwritten. Indeed, we 
can do but little for ourselves or others without 
a belief of some kind. Hence, the Scriptures are 
given to us for our instruction in belief, in doc- 
trine. And, then, we must not lose sight of the 
fact that we are responsible for our belief. You 
can not believe just what you please, when God's 
Word hes open before you, prescribing a belief, 
and demonstrating its absolute truthfulness by 
the most astounding miracles, any more than 
you can cling to any scientific error in the face 
of all the demonstrations to the contrary. The 
Scriptures tell us of God, of Christ, of law, and 
of duty. They correct our modes of thinking, 
and they reprove our conduct. The Bible is not 
a book of science, it only touches here and there 
upon scientific subjects. Nor is it a work on 
history or poetry; nay, its very mission is to 
man, as a sinner, and is given to instruct him in 
the way of life and true holiness. "It is prof- 
itable for instruction in righteousness." 

The word infidelity, while it is in ordinary use 
confined to a disbelief in written revelation, is 
yet used to embrace all the different forms of 
unbelief among men, including deism and athe- 
ism. God has given to us power to analyze, to 
investigate all subjects, and he is well pleased 
with our inquiries. He bids us, '' Search the 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. II9 

Scriptures." "Come, now, and let us reason 
together," is the language addressed to the 
thoughtful mind. The Scriptures will bear the 
closest searching. They are like the gold which 
can not be destroyed, though subjected to the 
severest tests. 

The statement is often made, that whatever is 
logically true can not be Scripturally false, and 
vice versa ; and there is a sense in which it is 
true. Yet we must bear in mind that the Scrip- 
tures are miraculous ; we claim for them a divin- 
ity which can not be judged of by the ordinary 
deductions of science and logic. They are rather 
above our human reason, and must not be re- 
jected on -account of our failure to grasp all they 
teach. 

We have two wings in the army to meet. 
First, theoretical infidelity. By this, we mean a 
disbelief in the doctrines taught in the Bible. 
These are very numerous. They apply to every 
condition in life, and explain every thing which 
is needful for us to know. But how common it 
is for men to avow their disbelief in the state- 
ments of revelation! We read and accept the 
teachings of historians, poets, and philosophers, 
whose claim upon our credence is not half so 
good as that of the writers of the Bible. Or 
men reject the teachings of the Bible because 



120 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

therein are found mysterious things. The world 
is full of theoretical infidelity, and it affects ad- 
versely the condition of all men. It is no un- 
common occurrence for our laboring men to 
imbibe the most pernicious and fatal sentiments, 
and live in the very shadows of the rankest in- 
fidelity. The subtile skepticism of the rational- 
istic philosophers reaches the farms and shops, 
and, assuming a less acute form, becomes the 
most debasing irreligion. There is scarcely an 
ism, or false science, which does not have its 
advocates in our shops and mills every-where. 

There is, for instance, the "development the- 
ory," advocated by some of our materialistic 
philosophers of the day. We must guard against 
this fatal error. That which distinguishes this 
age, in a very particular sense, is the spirit of 
philosophical inquiry which pervades all classes 
of society. We are not possessed of stronger 
minds than were the men of other days, but we 
are in" possession of many more facts. More 
books are written ; intelligence on matters of sci- 
ence is more widely difilised. It is a fact, too, 
that is quite significant, that nearly all of the 
great questions which make the intellectual world 
throb with interest, are those which intimately 
concern mankind and affect the human destiny. 
It is not to be wondered at that, in this eager- 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 121 

ness after truth, men should sometimes run into 
the mazes of error. 

The line which marks the boundary of human 
reason, as distinguished from what we call in- 
stinct in the brute, is not very perceptible ; yet 
there is such a line. There is a place where reason 
mounts the throne, and makes the man ; and that 
being, man, controls, governs every being" of mere 
instinct: so that there is a wide chasm, after all, 
between men and all other animals. 

But there is a class of skeptical writers in the 
world who tell us that we have been developed 
from previously existing primal forms; that most- 
of what we call species, human and animal, are 
only varieties of the same species, and these, in 
turn, have descended from other and remote 
forms very unlike themselves ; that existing spe- 
cies of the present day have sprung from ex- 
tinct species of the past geological ages. 

Thus the links of the chain are counted back- 
ward to only a few forms in both the animal and 
vegetable world, or back to the beginning, when, 
as it were, from a single seed, planted by the 
hand of the Creator, all this aggregate of being 
has sprung. 

These development men assure us that our 
immediate ancestors, in a direct line, are the 
monkeys, apes, and baboons. If this be true, 



122 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

then, surely, our pride of family must suffer some 
humiliation, as we identify our illustrious ances- 
tors in the monkey tribe ! 

But what is the origin of such a belief? Un- 
doubtedly, men have noticed, in both the animal 
and vegetable world, the changes which are con- 
stantly produced in these organisms by accident, 
by the action of climate, food, and habits of life ; 
so that the same animal, or the same plant, in 
a few generations, can scarcely be identified. 
Our cabbages, cauliflowers, and turnips have 
doubtless all sprung from one or more species 
of Brassica, which were as uneatable as wooden 
wedges ; but cultivation has made the change. 
The potato, in all its variety, has sprung from 
the little bitter root found in South America. 
Our wheat grew wild on the shores of the Med- 
iterranean, almost a worthless grass ; but, under 
cultivation and change of soil, it has become one 
of the most important productions of the age. 

Men have observed that animals may be cul- 
tivated and developed in a way so as quite to 
obliterate their former features ; and, by selection 
of the best qualities, a superior race can be pro- 
duced. 

Then, looking into the rocks amid the fossils, 
they have noticed that there is an ascending 
scale; that the vertebral column — by which is 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 1 23 

meant the back-bone — which terminates with a 
skull and brain, is the highest type of being. 
They trace it upwards through the rocks ; and 
when they get near the top, and find man, they 
imagine they have discovered his origin. They 
tell us that the Creator began to make man mill- 
ions of years ago, by making a vertebral column, 
and has gradually brought his idea to perfection 
in man as we see him. 

This false theory is not new. Epicurus taught, 
long ago, that men and all other animals were 
originally produced by the ground ; that the prim- 
itive earth was fat and nitrous, and the sun 
gradually warmed it : it was soon covered with 
herbage and shrubs. There also began to rise 
on the surface great numbers of small tumors, 
like mushrooms, which having in a certain time 
come to maturity, the skin burst, and there came 
forth little animals, which, gradually retiring 
from the place where they were produced, began 
to respire. Such have been the dreamy specu- 
lations of men in all ages. 

We do not charge the advocates of this theory 
with being intentionally atheistic. The Creator 
could certainly have originated all the species 
by a law of development. Every being begins 
its existence as a mere germ, passing through 
successive stages until it reaches its maturity; 



124 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

but this does not ,argue that nature, during her 
vast ages, has brought forth the human race 
from seeds planted millions of years ago. 

Those who oppose the development theory 
hold to the belief that the deity has constructed 
the world as a mechanic builds his house; and 
that the different orders of beings, from the in- 
fusoria up to man, have been created by the 
direct power and wisdom of God. They hold to 
this belief from all the evidences of design in 
nature. They do not believe that from a mere 
germ of vitality, a perfect eye, with retina and 
delicate lenses, adapted to the laws of light, 
would come spontaneously into being. They 
know that, far back in the first ages, fishes had 
eyes as perfect as fishes have now. 

This development theory tells us that a bird, 
failing to obtain its food on land, ventured into 
the water ; and, after a few generations, a little 
membrane began to form about its feet, and, in 
the course of some miUions of years possibly, 
became a web-foot ! Thus a 'land-fowl grew into 
a duck or goose ! It tells you that the neck of 
the giraffe was not created so in the beginning, 
but it developed in that way during the ages, 
while the giraffe family were trying to eat the 
tops off the trees ! 

The development theory demands an infinity 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 1 25 

of time in which to work out its problems ; and 
this time we can grant, but it does not help the 
cause. 

The time was when we believed that the whole 
universe was created about six thousand years 
ago ; but no intelligent man believes that now. 
Whatever the Almighty might do, we can not 
think that he did so recently call into being 
these worlds of space. But men ask, Does not 
Moses declare that he did } We answer, No. 
Moses does not put a date on the creation of 
Jehovah. He says, " In the beginning, God cre- 
ated the heavens and the earth ;" but when that 
beginning was, we are not told. Science explains 
Moses, as on these ancient pages she flashes 
her light. Moses does hot recount the history 
of the earth through its long periods of forma- 
tion: he only traces the present system. He 
gives us a picture in seven scenes, which passed, 
as in a beautiful vision, before the seer of God, 
showing the successive stages of progress in fit- 
ting up the world for the residence of mankind, 
the chief, the crowning work of God. 

Between these two books — Nature and the 
Bible — there is such a correspondence, that skep- 
ticism bows its assent. If science says millions 
of years are demanded to explain these phenom- 
ena, the theologian can grant it without doing 



126 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

violence to the Word ; so that, when time is de- 
manded, the Bible grants it, even though it may 
be infinitely vast in its sweep. And this does 
not, in the least, impair our faith in the Word 
of life. 

We may grant to these advocates of the devel- 
opment creed some plausibility of argument, in 
the fact of observed variability among the differ- 
ent species, under the influence of climate and 
culture. We may grant them honesty of purpose 
in their teaching; but still the doctrine is rad- 
ically wrong. They mistake resemblances for 
creations, position for parentage. If their state- 
ments are true, then have they overturned the 
commonly accepted doctrine of mankind on one 
point only ; but they have by no means proven 
their theory to be true. We ask, Is man, in all 
his nobleness, only an outgrowth of some other 
animal } If so, then he must have come from 
those animals which he nearest resembles. Can 
we believe so hideous a doctrine .-* As the indo- 
lent Italian stands before your door, turning the 
crank of his wheezing organ, and his servile 
monkey, with cap and scarf, leaps and dances as 
you toss him your pennies, can you believe that 
such was the origin of this godlike manhood of 
ours } Is not the account given in the Bible, of 
man's creation by the power of God, much more 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. \2J 

in harmony with what we feel and know of our- 
selves ? 

Again, those who have drunk in the false doc- 
trine of man's origin, must deny the doctrine of 
the soul's immortality; for if such is the fact, 
that we have grown up through the ages in the 
manner they tell us, then we are merely material 
beings — have no souls ; but, like the animals 
around us, when we die, that will be the end of 
us. All this sense of our spiritual life is but a 
dream, all this hope which thrills us is founda- 
tionless, and we look across the river of death 
to a better home in vain. Again, we leave it to 
you to compare the creed of the materialist with 
the Word of God, and decide which is best. We 
are not mere animals — sponges, growing with no 
better life — we are immortal. 

*' It must be so : 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality ? 
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 
Of falling into night ? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction ? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 
'T is Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man." 

To accept these infidel teachings concerning 
our origin and condition, would inevitably lead 
to the rejection of the entire Word of God. The 
prophets sink into mere dreamers ; the recorded 



128 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

miracles were the sheerest illusions or decep- 
tions ; the experiences of the millions who have 
gone triumphantly to their home, had no basis 
on which to rest. Is there aught of consolation 
in such a creed .? In our self-consciousness we 
must find the true answer ; in our experience we 
may have the best confirmation of the doctrines 
which are taught in the Holy Scriptures. 

Practical infidelity deserves our consideration. 
Errors of belief lead to errors of practice. If 
the fountain is poisoned, the stream will be. 
Hence, to do right, we must think right. Many 
are too much inclined to ignore the Scriptures, 
they are so much engrossed with their daily 
business. One says : "I go to church on the 
Sabbath, but my business is on my mind during 
the entire service. I try to rid myself of worldly 
thoughts, but I can not." Now, that man con- 
soles himself with the thought that poor human 
nature is very weak. But why, we ask, is his 
mind so much swayed on the Lord's-day.? It is 
plain. He does not think of God and his law 
during the week-time. All his attention is di- 
rected to business — work — from morn till night, 
from Monday to Saturday ; and the mind is so 
accustomed to these worldly thoughts that, when 
the Sabbath comes, it goes on, right over the day 
designed for rest. Let a locomotive go dashing 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 1 29 

along the track at a fearful rate of speed, and 
you can not check it in a moment. Put on the 
brakes as hard as you may, yet there is momen- 
tum there, and it will run some distance in spite 
of the effort to stop it. So men keep running, 
up to the very edge of Sunday ; and then try to 
turn their minds into some other channel, and 
find it impossible. The remedy for this is, to 
give some attention to the claims of religion 
during the week. Have a Bible in your store or 
shop ; read it, meditate upon it ; and then, when 
the Sabbath comes, it will not be so difficult to 
worship God in his holy temple. 

And, again, men are wearied with work. They 
come home tired ; but, instead of waking up when 
the holy, quiet Sabbath comes, and arraying 
themselves in suitable apparel and going to the 
house of God, they lounge away the Sabbath in 
sleep. Their wives and children go ; they remain 
at home. We once wondered why it was that 
we had so many widows in our congregation — 
what fatal malady had swept away the men. 
We learned the secret. The men excused them- 
selves from going to the house of God, and their 
wives went alone. 

The plea which many set up, that they need 
rest, is true ; but they should not forget that 
change is rest. The services of religion rest us, 

9 



130 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

by bringing into play a new class of faculties. 
Church-going will invigorate you and refresh 
you, in body as well as mind. It is a most 
remarkable fact, that, both in England and 
America, only about five per cent of the work- 
ing-men are church-goers. They are neglecters 
of the Word of God, and of the house of God, to 
a degree that is most alarming. 

We here utter our warning against the perni- 
cious influence of the club-room. Young men, 
especially, come into our cities, and, being stran- 
gers, they join clubs of some kind, for compan- 
ionship. They shut themselves up, play cards, 
drink, read obscene books, and indulge in vices 
the most revolting. It is safe to say that nine- 
tenths of all who go into these places are ruined. 

Man needs society, especially the society of 
virtuous woman. But this the club-room does 
not afford ; all its tendencies are only evil, and 
that continually. Their history is a sad one. In 
some of these clubs, the reading is of a kind to 
sour the spirit against religion of every kind. 
Reading such works as the " Age of Reason," can 
afford no good to any man ; and he who ventures 
within them, steps, before he knows it, to the 
verge of ruin. 

Working-men are often constant neglecters of 
the Sabbath as an institution. 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 13I 

Do you know that this day is a necessity ? Its 
very foundation is laid in the nature of your 
being. One day in seven for rest — -change — is 
not a mere conventional arrangement. It is of 
God, and comes as much under general law as 
heat or light. When France, in the days of her 
atheism, abolished the Sabbath, converted the 
Cathedral of Paris into a temple of Liberty, and 
worshiped its goddess 'in the person of a prosti- 
tute, the Almighty was angry with the nation, 
and sent blood and distress upon them. But the 
common people of the interior instinctively re- 
turned to the observance of " one day in seven ;" 
for they said their cattle needed it not less than 
themselves. Neither man nor beast can work 
incessantly, without recreation, without change. 
But how is it with many of our working-men.? 
They look upon this day as one for sleep, or for 
carousal and hilarity ; while often some of the 
worst crimes known to the laws of either God or 
man are committed on this day. 

And what we have said of the Sabbath may 
be equally affirmed of the preaching. Some 
people look upon the pulpit as a mere sectarian 
institution, and upon all sermons as mere dog- 
matism. This is not the case. Preaching is 
one of God's methods of evangelizing the world. 
The Savior said, "Go ye into all the world, and 



132 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

preach the Gospel to every creature." " The 
preaching of the Cross is to them that perish 
fooUshness, but unto us which are saved it is 
the wisdom of God and the power of God." 

The pulpit is, as a whole, pre-eminently in- 
structive. When intelligent and virtuous men 
discourse constantly on topics of interest which 
all may hear, it is easily to be seen that it will 
influence the minds of those who attend. Hence, 
it may be regarded as true, that the most intel- 
ligent of every community are those who attend 
upon the preaching of the Gospel with regularity. 

Many men vindicate and justify themselves 
in their neglect of the house of God, on the 
plea that wealth and aristocracy shut them out. 
In a few instances, this may have been the case ; 
but it is in no sense general. The voice of the 
Church is, "Come;" and they who remain away, 
do so without excuse. If you can not dress as 
well as others, still come just as you are. If 
you can not obtain a seat as conspicuous as that 
of the rich man, do not let this deprive you of 
the blessings of holy worship. The Church wel- 
comes the laborer^— it welcomes the poor. 

But stay away from the house of God ; give 
no heed to the claims of the Gospel ; spend the 
Sabbath in riding for pleasure, in walking the 
streets, frequenting places of amusement, reading 



T?IE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 133 

a literature which the best judgment of mankind 
pronounces pernicious, — and you will run into 
positive infidelity; 3^ou will become deniers of 
the written Word ; you will adopt philosophies 
at war with the " truth as it is in Jesus ;" you 
will bring upon your soul leanness and barren- 
ness ; you will kill your conscience, blunt your 
intellect, and harden your heart.- 

Religion is a blessing to every man, to every 
nation. The virtues which the Bible inculcates — 
such as economy, industry, and benevo-lence — el- 
evate men. How does England, an island with 
less than thirty millions of people, hold, as in a 
grip of steel, all India, with more than a hundred 
and fifty millions of inhabitants } The explana- 
tion is in the fact that one is Christian, the other 
heathen. Christianity quickens the intellect, 
works out the best manhood, and is the only 
system in the universe which makes man truly 
great. 

A grain of wheat has no power to expand 
itself Shut it up in a sealed vase, bury it in a 
tomb, and it will lie there for ages — a little 
particle of matter, inert and forceless. But 
bring it forth, plant it, give it rain and sunshine, 
and it will germinate and produce a hundred 
grains of wheat, as perfect and beautiful as 
itself So the human mind needs to be acted 



134 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

upon by the Spirit of God, in order to grow up 
into its real beauty. If men deny the Spirit, 
grieve it, and shut themselves up in darkness, 
the result will be intellectual and moral death. 

If India were a Christian land, England could 
have no such control over her. The heathen 
world is sluggish ; not so the Christian. Do you 
wish to see energy, power, skill ? go to the lands 
where the Gospel is proclaimed. 

The same is true of home. The best homes 
in all the world are those of Christian families. 
Moreover, you will find there more thrift, more 
development of the graces of life, and more 
health, in the aggregate. If you wish to clothe 
society in rags, abolish the pulpit ; if you wish 
to turn men back to savages, annul the law of 
the Sabbath ; if you wish to stop all inven- 
tion, burn up your Bibles, — and the end will be 
gained. 

Infidelity casts a shadow on the life of man. 
The heart that receives no light from God is in 
a sad state. If you deny the authority of God's 
holy Word, and attempt to walk by the light of 
nature, you will surely stumble and fall. In 
sickness, what will you have to comfort you ? in 
death, what voice to console you ? at the grave, 
what hope for the future.'^ Jesus said, "I am 
the resurrection and the life." But you do not 



THE CHRISTIAN ARTISAN. 1 35 

believe it. You deny it because there is mystery 
in it. You say the Gospel is a fable, though 
millions of men, as intelligent as any in the 
world are, and as sincere, have testified to its 
power. And with such a creed you go down to 
death, cheerless and cold. What will be your 
fate ? 

Death swallows you up; but that is not all. 
There is a future, an unseen world, in which 
judgment awaits all men. On the other hand, 
Christianity is full of life, light, and peace. Is 
the cloud dark, it fringes it with gold. Is the 
storm fearful, Christ walks on the waters of a 
troubled world, saying, " Peace, be still." Does 
sickness come, he will *' make your bed in sick- 
ness." Are you poor in this world's goods, he 
promises you the riches of heaven. Is all the 
world arrayed against you, "I have overcome 
the world for you," said Jesus. 

Working-men, go to this best Fountain of 
light; its "leaves are for the healing of the na- 
tions." It is God's gift to you. Receive the 
proffered aid, and your heart will rejoice. Re- 
ject it, and you will shed tears of bitter regret. 

** To live in darkness, in despair to die, 

Is this, indeedj the boon to mortals given ? 
Is there no port, no rock of refuge nigh ? 

There is to those who fix their anchor, hope, in heaven." 



136 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

"Turn, then, O man, and cast all else aside ; 

Direct thy wandering thoughts to things above. 
Low at the cross bow down, in that confide. 

Till doubt be lost in faith, and bliss secured in love." 




I 



CHAPTER VII. 



cirrtatt a; 



fj ^efa:es«e::u'. 



'"'' Her footsteps see??ied to toicch the earthy 
Only to mark the track that leads to heaven.^'' 




HE Black Horse and Carryall are quite 
an institution, in their way. How could 
we get through the world without them t 
How have we managed to get along thus far by 
borrowing of our friends and hiring at the liv- 
ery } But so it is ; one loses much by wrong 
methods. It is, however, pleasant to make up, 
even at a late day, and begin life anew. 

There are some people in the world, whom we 
meet, who are perpetually acting upon the phi- 
losophy embraced in the saying, 

*' Mail never is, but always to be, blest," 

They are always at work, day and night. They 
know no such thing as rest or comfort. They 
are growing old and infirm, but they toil on — for 

137 



138 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

what? Ask them, and they can not tell you. 
The true philosophy of life is, to live and enjoy 
ourselves as we go along. What if we have 
fewer bonds or houses ? We have, or may have, 
all which these imply — sunshine, repose, and 
solid comfort. What is money for, if not to use 
in procuring one's own happpiness and doing 
good to others.'* How few there are who earn 
money for the purpose of giving it away ! 

Our Black Horse and Carryall mean home 
comfort. They are not too nice to be driven 
even when the roads are muddy. 

We have an abhorrence of any thing which is 
too good to be used. Some overcareful people 
get fine clothing to pack away in trunks for 
moths to consume, and buy expensive furniture 
to stow away in dark rooms, unused, to become 
musty and old-fashioned. We smile at the sim- 
plicity of the man who bought a clock, but let 
it stand still to keep it from wearing out. So we 
may smile at those who lose all present enjoy- 
ment in their anxiety about future days, which 
may never come. 

We do not believe in pleasure-riding on the 
Sabbath. A horse needs one day in seven about 
as much as a man does. And we never ride on 
Sabbath unless it be to a funeral or to visit a 
mission-school in the country a few miles, or go 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. 139 

upon some othor errand of mercy. This is do- 
ing good ; and for this, as much as for mere 
pleasure, we own the estabUshment. 

We recently spent a Sabbath afternoon on 
a visit to a country Sunday-school, held in a 
school-house. It gave us a great deal of pleasure 
to witness the gathering of old and young, rich 
and poor, saint and sinner, to the number of 
about one hundred. How unlike the more or- 
derly schools of the city, with all their elegant 
fixtures! And yet, measured by spirit and devo- 
tion to the work, the country school is better 
than that of the city. Men, women, and chil- 
dren come from one to three miles to attend it. 
It is our conviction that these same country 
schools and congregations, scattered every-where, 
are doing more to evangelize the nation than the 
city schools. Our cities are made up, in a large 
degree, of people who have come from the coun- 
try. The best Christians are those who have 
been made so before they reached the city: so 
that country Churches and Sunday-schools are 
the feeders of the city; and just in the propor- 
tion that they are successful, will the population 
of the cities be morally improved. 

That which impressed us most on the occa- 
sion referred to, was the active part taken by 
the women. Here, as every-where else, there 



I40 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

were more women than men engaged in the 
good work. By some law of her being, woman 
invariably drifts in the direction of charitable 
acts. Start a mission Sunday-school, or found 
a Church, and you can count on the aid of every 
true woman. Her hand and heart will be on the 
side of peace, purity, and religion, always. 

In the times of the Savior, every instrumen- 
tality was employed to scatter the seeds of divine 
truth throughout the world, and almost every 
object of nature and event of history served as 
a text for a sermon — from the overthrow of an 
empire to the washing of feet, from the stars of 
space to the falling of a sparrow. 

As Jesus sat by the well in Samaria, weary 
with his long journey from Jerusalem northward, 
heated by the scorching beams of the noonday 
sun, a woman came out of the city to draw 
water, as was the custom of the times. He at 
once made use of the circumstance so trivial in 
itself, so common, to communicate to her in- 
structions concerning her spiritual obligations 
and duties. Woman, then as now, was quick to 
discern the truth, quick to confess her guilt, and 
equally ready to publish abroad the tidings of her 
conviction and conversion. She was honest, too ; 
for she said : " Come, see a man which told me all 
things which ever I did. Is not this the Christ .?" 



I 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. 141 

Her honesty was apparent to all, and her con- 
fession was from the heart ; for her history was 
well known to her neighbors, whom she could 
not deceive. Every-where about the city she 
told of this wonderful man, this prophet of God. 
And it is said, " Many of the Samaritans be- 
lieved on him for the sayings of the woman." 

So it was in later times. As the apostles went 
forth, preaching the Gospel, their eloquence, 
though burning, was not fully efficient without 
the accompaniment of the godly examples of 
Christian women. 

The Gospel shows its breadth and liberty by 
its recognition of rights and privileges among the 
proscribed. It saw kings among beggars. It 
recognized true nobility even among plebeians, 
and discovered crowns amid the manacles that 
bound men in hopeless vassalage. 

St. Paul's Christian greetings to Persis, Junia, 
Phebe, Priscilla, and others of his women-helpers 
in the Gospel, were the bugle-call to Christian 
activity, sounding down over the centuries, and 
a light that gilds to brightness the coming ages 
of time. His greetings were but the echoes of 
Christ's teachings. 

In the many moral reforms which have swept 
across the track of human society since the be- 
ginning of time, the historian has not failed to 



142 THE BLACK HORSt AND CARRYALL. 

place on record the fact, that, in them all, woman 
has had her sphere of activity and influence. In 
Egypt and in Babylon, in Greece and in Rome, 
in modern England, France, and Germany, as 
well as in our own country, names quite familiar 
will occur to the intelligent reader. 

In all lands, woman has played a most con- 
spicuous part in religious services. In Eden, she 
stood in the foreground of responsibility. There 
was a time when upon her rested the task of 
judging Israel and leading the army to victory; 
not because there was no man in Israel compe- 
tent, but because Deborah, the prophetess, was 
peculiarly fitted for the work. Josiah, King of 
Israel, was glad to consult Huldah, the prophet- 
ess, in the dark hour of his reign. Yet there 
were prophets to whom he might have gone. 
Miriam, the prophetess, led the hosts of God 
with timbrel and song, when deliverance from 
bondage came to them. So we see that, in Jew- 
ish as well as in Christian times, woman has 
taken a prominent part in religious movements. 
Especially is this fact noticeable in the early 
centuries of the Christian Church. 

Women were among the first con'verts to the 
Christian religion ; and during the terrible perse- 
cutions which followed under the reign of em- 
perors hostile to Christianity, among the martyrs 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. 143 

was often found woman. She went to the rack 
and stake with a fortitude that proved the divin- 
ity of her faith. And, among the most precious 
testimonies treasured up in the memory of the 
Church, are those of noble women whose lives 
were laid cheerfully on the altar of sacrifice, 
while their examples are an inspiration and an 
incentive to Christian work and patience that 
will run through all the ages. 

In the great evangelical reformation, under 
Wesley, woman came grandly to the work. The 
mother of John Wesley was a powerful preacher, 
though she was never ordained to the work of 
the ministry, and never gave herself wholly to 
it. She was a good and true wife and mother. 
She trained her sons for their great life-work. 
The Methodist Church to-day is only an en- 
largement of Susannah Wesley's nursery. Mrs. 
Fletcher, wife of the Vicar of Madely, was one of 
the noblest of women, and a preacher of great 
power. 

In all great religious movements, woman has 
risen to the work of saving souls. Yet society 
has ever sought to place on her lips the seal of 
silence. It has been only in times of genuine 
religious revivals that the talent and devotion of 
women have been acknowledged, as in the re- 
vivals of the Wesleys and Whitefield, and that 



144 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

under President Edwards in the earlier days of 
New England. 

What precious names appear in the annals of 
the Christian Church since the Reformation ! 
Take that of Lady Huntingdon, whose example 
and money and time were so freely given to ex- 
tend the Gospel. She occupied the highest sta- 
tion in society. She was a wealthy and elegant 
lady ; but, moved by a divine impulse, she con- 
secrated herself and all she had to the cause of 
Christ. She, of course, became the object of 
derision among the dissolute English aristocracy, 
but she stood firm. She held prayer-meetings 
every-where among ladies of her own rank. She 
opened her mansion as a preaching-place, and 
crowds went there to hear the Word of Life. 
She made extensive tours of evangelism among 
the destitute. In this manner she spent her time 
in Summer, rather than to frequent places of 
fashionable resort, as people of her rank were 
accustomed to do. 

England, in the great Wesleyan revival, had 
many noble women who were among the most 
efficient laborers in the cause of Christ ; among 
them Lady Margaret Hastings, whose house, like 
that of the Countess of Huntingdon, was con- 
verted into a place of public worship. The name 
of Grace Murray is like an aroma from Eden, in 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. 1 45 

the history of those early struggles. How noble 
it was, when Rowland Hill was the victim of 
persecution, deserted by his parents, and exposed 
to the severest trials, that his sister Jane came 
to his aid, and, with her prayers and letters and 
burning words, assisted him in his struggles ! 

Nobler than the Pope, are the Sisters of Mercy 
in the Catholic Church. 

In America, the influence of woman has been 
very great, especially in the Methodist Church. 
Methodism owes as much to her influence as to 
any human agency. She is, at this hour, aij effi- 
cient in carrying forward the spiritual enterprises 
of the Church as man. Take the women out of 
our Churches, and these Churches would lose 
more than half their power for good. Take away 
the familiar names from the records of foreign mis- 
sions, and more than half the charm would be lost. 

The Methodists and Quakers have been stig- 
matized, because they have placed woman on a 
plane of equality with man in religious meetings. 
And she has every-where been called to account 
for daring to open her lips in the public service 
of God's house ; and that, too, in the face of 
all the noble examples of history, from the true- 
hearted women who were 

" Last at the cross, 
And earliest at the tomb," 
10 



146 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

clown to the present day. We do not doubt the 
sincerity of those who have stood opposed to 
woman's taking any public part in the services 
of religion. We think it has arisen out of a 
misapprehension of St. Paul, who was a man of 
very positive character, and was always either for 
or against any thing squarely. That he teaches 
the subjection of women to their husbands, no 
one can doubt. "Wives, submit yourselves unto 
your own husbands, as unto the Lord." " P'or 
the husband is the head of the wife, even as 
Christ is the head of the Church ; therefore, as 
the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be 
to their own husbands in every thing." 

This is one side of the question. Now, let us 
look at the other side. 

" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 
also loved the Church, and gave himself for it." 
Here, then, arises a question. Is the subjection 
of woman as wife, to man as husband, an uncon- 
ditional subjection.'* Does not the law of the 
Gospel most expressly say that husbands are as 
much bound to love their wives as wives are 
bound to submit to the governing headship of 
the husband .'' Is it not a mutual relation ? 

We are prepared to afhrm, as our belief, that 
it is ; and if all husbands were to love their 
wives, in the language of St. Paul, as ** Christ 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. I47 

loved the Church," even to a willingness^ to '* lay 
down their lives for them/' knowing what we do 
of woman's nature, there is not one wife in a 
thousand, the world over, who would not fulfill 
her part by the most hearty compliance with 
that seemingly hard command, "Wives, submit 
yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the 
Lord." 

St. Paul, in his letter to Timothy, gave certain 
directions concerning woman's part in the sanc- 
tuary, admonishing her to "keep silence." This 
must have been in mere business meetings, and 
must have had a local application ; for he gives 
directions equally specific elsewhere, as to her 
deportment when she prays or prophesies in the 
congregations. No woman could pray or proph- 
esy without breaking silence. Hence, the injunc- 
tion, which has so long been used to put a seal 
on the lips of woman in the churches, was in 
violation both of God's law and woman's nature, 
and was a most unjust curtailment of her religious 
rights. What, a woman keep silence ! 

The same apostle sends kindly salutations to 
those noble women who were his helpers in the 
Gospel. "Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who 
labored in the Lord." " Salute the beloved 
Persis, who labored much in the Lord." Salu- 
tations and Christian greetings were extended 



148 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

to many others who had been helpers in the 
Gospel. 

What they did, precisely, we do not know; 
but this is certain, they "prophesied" — that is, 
taught — publicly, modestly veiled, according to 
custom. They, doubtless, exhorted the people to 
repentance, prayed, visited the sick, and did many 
other noble things. And all this is consistent 
with the sublime utterance of the prophet of 
God: "It shall come to pass, in the last days, 
saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon 
all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy; . . . and on my servants and 
hand-maidens I will pour out in those days of 
my Spirit, and they shall prophesy." 

Let us go, now, to the upper room, where the 
disciples met to pray. There were Peter, James, 
John, Andrew, and all the others. These con- 
tinued with one accord in prayer and supplication 
with the women, and with Mary the mother of 
Jesus, and with" his brethren. And when the 
baptism came, " there appeared unto them cloven 
tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." 
Woman, no less than man, received the Divine 
baptism on the day of Pentecost. 

That men and women were created for differ- 
ent spheres in life, is a truth not to be denied. 
His constitution fits him for the outside world ; 



WOMAN AS A REFORMER. 1 49 

his mission is to contend with the elements, in 
mastery. Her mission is that of goodness ; she 
has forming power. He is active — she passive ; 
one is the complement of the other. The two 
constitute one round, full being. And yet, as 
men and women are joined in that most holy 
estate, marriage, the day he fails to love her as 
" Christ loved the Church," using this as a figure, 
her subjection is not binding. Take the Scrip- 
tures as a test, and you must conclude that the 
bonds are mutual. The failure of one releases 
the other. No woman is bound to live with a 
drunken, brutal husband. She may not seek di- 
vorce, and should not ; but her vow to love and 
live with him is no longer binding. She can 
better care for herself without him. 

In this universal womanhood, we see a great 
world-force ; and one of two things is inevitable : 
we must either give up our Christian civilization, 
or recognize woman as a force sent of God for 
good. And what shall we do ? Give up our 
Christianity.? Never. Then, what of the force 
it draws up out of this mass of being, as the sun 
draws the vapors from the ground } We answer, 
let it have its way. Woman's nature is just 
what God has made it. Man's nature is just as 
it came from the hand of its Creator. No legis- 
lation can change either. He will be father, she 



150 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

will be mother, while the world stands. Love is 
a passion of our being : and it will control society 
forever, binding hearts together. The mother 
will love her child better than life, if she is a 
true woman. Unnatural mothers and wives al- 
ways have existed, and always will. The laws 
of men can not unmake the laws of God. Go 
on, then, ye noble-hearted women. Let the 
world say of you what it will, your mission is 
Christ-like, and many will rise up to call you 
blessed. 




CHAPTER VIII. 



S*9%^8 »"«! W.-^'^^^§ ^^ ML^^^^- 




' To be man's tender mate, ivas woma^i born ; 
And, in obeying nature, she best serves 
The ptir poses of Hea^jen.'''' 

E have just returned to our desk, from a 
few days' drive, with the Black Horse 
and Carryall, among the farms and 
farmers. We never have been in love with the 
farmer's life until now. Perhaps the feeling of 
dislike to farming, which we have felt heretofore, 
grew out of the hard work which has always been 
necessary to successful agriculture. They used 
to say, 

" He who by the plow would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

Perhaps this is true yet. But, then, the driving part 
is the principal thing in modern farming. Farmers 
ride over their farms now, on mowers, reapers, 
and planters. They cultivate their lands now by 

151 



152 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

machinery. As we view it now, we rather think 
we should like farming, especially the riding 
part ! In no department of industrial life have 
greater improvements been made than in this — 
in two ways ; namely, in the use of machinery, 
and in the release of woman from work in the 
field. What changes have been made in the last 
quarter of a century ! The farmers have plenty 
of hard work yet ; but not so much as before the 
era of machinery. So there is progress in every 
thing. We, who live in this nineteenth century, 
are in a new world, when compared with those 
of other years. 

A traveler in a railroad-train is constantly 
being acted upon by one of two forces : the loco- 
motive and the brake. The former is the symbol 
of the progress of this fast age ; the latter is 
the symbol of conservation. The one looks for- 
ward to the future ; the other turns its face to 
the past. 

The locomotive is peculiarly American; and 
is not simply the product of the age. Rather, it 
has been a factor in making the age what it is. 
The brake-power is to the locomotive what his- 
tory is to philosophy. The one is speculative, 
and has its eye on the unfoldings of the future ; 
the other deals with and conserves the past. 

All true progress in science, in philosophy. 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 53 

and in our social life, implies a breaking away 
from old paths. Galileo, in the face of edicts 
and bulls from the Vatican, contrary to the 
teachings of all time, issued his solemn protest 
against the commonly received theory of plan- 
etary motion. His philosophy reversed history. 
The dungeon came ; but neither dungeon nor 
rack could change his convictions, and he came 
out of prison, as he went in, only to say, " It 
does^ move." 

Columbus launched his little squadron on the 
deep, and steered directly into its dark abyss, to 
prove that the world was not a vast plane, rest- 
ing on the backs of elephants ; we suppose the 
kind-hearted Italian sailor desired to relieve the 
elephants of their load ! It was simply the loco- 
motive overcoming the brake. Farmers are very 
conservative, as a class ; and yet how willingly 
they have changed the old-fashioned scythe and 
sickle for the present reaper and mower ! We 
have a large class in society every-where whom 
we denominate " croakers." They may be found 
even in the Churches, dozy dignitaries who once 
in an age wake up — Rip Van Winkle like — rub 
their eyes, and ask if "all things remain as they 
were from the beginning ;" and, if they see any 
change, they set up a pitiful wailing over the 
" good old days of the past." 



154 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

These people tell us that the world is not get- 
ting any better, but worse, with each passing 
year. They fail to discover that they only see 
more of the world than they used to, and that 
there are more people to see. When they were 
children, their fathers took the county newspaper, 
which came to them once a week, and usually 
contained the account of a murder or an elope- 
ment, or something else, and they thought it 
was a bad state of things. Now they read of 
murders, elopements, thefts, and kindred crimes 
every day. The great difference is, we are liv- 
ing in the age of daily, instead of weekly papers, 
and of telegraphs which flash intelligence all 
over the continent in a single hour. Is the 
world growing worse ? It would be a poor 
argument for our Christianity, our school sys- 
tem, and the printing-press if these things were 
really so. 

Let us place ourselves back to a time when 
all the appliances of our present civilization had 
no existence. How did people keep house with- 
out friction matches ? Think of nine weeks of 
tossing between New York and London, in an 
old-fashioned ship ! Does any one suppose that 
a modern congregation could be hired to sit in 
an unwarmed Church, and listen to sermons 
rising from firstly and secondly up to sixty- 



\ 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 155 

fourthly, consuming three mortal hours, stopping 
for lunch and rest at twenty-fifthly ? 

There is a very marked difference between old 
paths and old principles. That which was true 
in principle six thousand years ago, is true yet, 
and will be to the end of time. But the paths 
on which we walked then are too narrow now. 
Boston built her houses along the ancient cow- 
paths, it is said ; but she is widening and straight- 
ening these crooked streets. So human society 
began to build its temples, and subsequently 
finds it necessary to widen the ways of human 
thought and action. Conservation is right when 
we deal with principles ; but on matters of mode 
we can afford to change as often as we think 
best. 

It is not to be supposed for an instant that all 
these changes in science, in art, in civil govern- 
ment, this diffusion of intelligence, this grand 
unfolding of the world's latent forces, can go for- 
ward without its effect on society. Serfdom in 
Russia, slavery in England and America, have 
been abolished, not by the power of man, but by 
the civilization of the age. Abolitionism was 
born of Christianity. So is every other true 
reform, either in morals or mechanics. 

We have said that the invention of machinery 
has revolutionized farm-labor. Three men, with 



156 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

a span of horses and a machine, .can do more 
now than ten men could have done twenty-five 
years ago. Once it was a common thing for 
women to labor in the harvest-field ; now it is 
one of the rarest sights. In relation to woman, 
as a factor in society, the world is coming to a 
correct miderstanding. Woman's voice, all over 
the world, is being raised in her own behalf, and 
the tide is setting in. Like all other movements 
of the kind, there are extremists on both sides 
of the question. No one can read the history 
of womankind without a blush on account of 
the great injustice done her in past ages, and in 
all lands. 

She has been, and is to-day, a beast of burden 
in many of the older countries. She has been 
looked upon as a mere appendage to the sterner 
sex. In India and China, with their millions, 
she is not even supposed to have a soul ; and 
by her education, or rather the want of it, she 
scorns the idea herself, that she should even be 
thought to have any relation of equality to man. 
Her condition, even in India and China, is un- 
dergoing a change under the influence of En- 
glish and American civilization. She is gradu- 
ally, but surely, emerging from her depressed 
condition. 

In this country she is on the high road to the 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1^7 

most perfect enfranchisement. The head -of the 
column has reached England, where woman, in 
certain elections, can vote ; though it is singular 
that in a monarchy the word citizen should 
have a wider meaning than in a republic. But 
the column is advancing. It will soon reach 
America ; and, like the wave of light rolling 
around the world, it will return to the Orient, 
and do for India what it has done for England 
and America. 

We may well pause here, and look at great 
facts of nature ; for there is between man and 
woman a mental, moral, and physical difference. 
Sex means the whole being. Woman's physical 
powers differ from those of man. So do her 
mind and he^rt. She is less rugged than he. 
Her organization as surely fits her for a sphere 
differing from that of man as the moon has a 
mission diiTerent from that of the sun. He has 
strength, ruggedness, endurance, which fit him 
for the outside world. She reverses these qual- 
ities, and has moral tenderness and physical 
sensitiveness, which fit her for the inside world. 

Look at this mental difference. Man's brain 
is said to be larger, on the average, than wo- 
man's. So is his body. As a student he has 
always pressed- his investigations farther than 
she; but he has had a hundred times her oppor- 



158 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

tunity. It is said that only a few women have 
really distinguished themselves in a high sense. 
Deborah was one of them. Joan of Arc was 
another. Isabella of Spain, Elizabeth, Mary, 
Victoria, Aspasia, Cleopatra, and a few others, 
complete the list of the world's great women. 
When we look at the fact that, by a universal 
opinion of mankind, in every age woman had no 
mission but to please and gratify man, it is a 
wonder that even half so many have distin- 
guished themselves in the annals of the world. 

But while her brain is not so large, the physiol- 
ogists tell us, it is of a finer texture. His is the 
coarse, strong canvas ; hers the finer fabric of the 
silk. He grinds out his conclusions in the mill 
of his invincible logic ; she jumps at her conclu- 
sions by intuition. He climbs the ladder, step 
by step ; she goes to the topmost round at 
one full bound. Our advice to all men is, not 
to argue with a woman unless you can com- 
pel her to use logical syllogisms ; for, in nine 
cases out of ten, you will have to beat a retreat, 
or own yourselves defeated, and surrender to 
her arms. 

Girls learn faster than boys, say the teachers ; 
but boys learn longer and go further: and that 
is because society has taught the girl that the 
only thing she was ever made for, is matrimony. 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 59 

Hence, when she comes home from " boarding- 
school," and has acquired a smattering of French, 
and can thump out a few tunes on the piano, 
and tell you of the satellites of Jupiter and the 
rings of Saturn, the poor child thinks she has a 
" finished education." 

It has not been so with men. They have in- 
centives to study which she has not had. The 
professions of medicine and law, and mercantile 
pursuits, are before them ; and, under the stimulus, 
they ascend higher up the hill of science, and 
have won its laurels. 

We have said there is a moral difference. 
Woman is naturally more inclined to be religious 
than man. She comes first to the door of the 
Church. We are told she ate first of the "for- 
bidden fruit ;" and, under a universal compunc- 
tion of conscience, we suppose is first to repent ! 
Adam's conduct was very strange on that occa- 
sion. He doubtless saw that Eve must inevita- 
bly be banished from Eden ; and, rather than be 
left alone in the garden, he ate of the fruit, and 
went with her ! But we never thought he be- 
haved very chivalric for blaming it all upon 
his wife ; and we never admired Adam on that 
account. 

Upon this difference in the sexes in all respects, 
the whole world is agreed. Woman is woman ; 



l6o THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

man is man. And is it not one of the greatest 
blessings, that she, who is the mother of the race, 
should have a heart of tenderness, to fashion and 
mold into beauty the nations of the world ? 

The law of unity in diversity has a fine illus- 
tration in the law of selections. As in chemistry 
an affinity often exists between unlike particles, 
so, in human life, our opposites often have for us 
the greatest attractions. Light hair chooses dark, 
and vice versa. Tall men prefer short wives usu- 
ally. All the world bursts into a laugh when it 
sees a tall woman with a short man dangling at 
her side. It is no uncommon thing to see a 
sanguine temperament united with one that is 
phlegmatic. The short step of the short woman 
checks the long step of the long man, and keeps 
him from running through life too fast ; while bile 
acts as a perpetual brake on blood, and keeps 
the sanguine from being consumed too rapidly, 
as a' mouse is consumed in a jar of oxygen. 

Every man was designed to be the husband of 
one wife, and every woman the wife of some man ; 
for, in the plan of God, they complement each 
other. She expresses tenderness, love, goodness, 
beauty. He expresses strength, will, victory. 
She admires these in him ; she worships heroism. 
He admires those in her, and woos her pity and 
love by turning hero. These qualities are some- 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. l6l 

times interchanged, but no one admires a womanly 
man or a manly woman. 

Eve was extracted from Adam's side, to be his 
equal ; not from his brain, like Minerva from the 
brain of Jupiter. She was not taken from his 
feet, to point her out as his vassal. Adam was 
made from pure " red earth," hence all men must 
have been originally red. The black man is only 
a more intensely red man, and the Vv^hite man is 
one whose redness has bleached out. All other 
colors are mixtures of these. Woman was made 
out of the " red earth " after it had gone through 
the refining process in the Garden. 

Woman suffers some wrongs of which she, with 
all her grace of womanhood, may justly complain. 
Her wages have not been adequate. Doing the 
same work as man, and doing it as well, she has 
been awarded less than half his pay, on the 
ground that she can live on less — is less finan- 
cially responsible. That is questionable. We 
have known a young woman to work hard, save 
her earnings, and aid in the support of a father 
and mother ; while if a young man had done the 
same work, he would have received double her 
pay, on the plea that he needed it — for cigars 
and billiards ! But, it is said, the laws of supply 
and demand must regulate this. If a merchant 
has a trusty salesman, to whom he pays one 

II 



l62 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

thousand dollars a year, and a score of young 
men apply for the situation, is it common for him 
to change according to the "laws of supply and 
demand ?" No. He takes ability, character, into 
the account. 

Because ten thousand poor women in New 
York are on the verge of starvation, and are will- 
ing to make shirts for twelve cents apiece, is 
it just to say, that shall be the price for such 
work ? If they are willing to work for their 
boarding, does that argue that women shall work 
for nothing .? That which proves too much, 
proves nothing. 

Again, the sphere of woman's labor is quite too 
restricted. Only about one-third of the ordinary 
employments have been open to her. Every- 
where men are doing woman's work, or work she 
could do better. Great physical athletes, six 
feet high and weighing two hundred pounds, are 
standing behind counters, selling pins, tape, cal- 
ico, etc. They ought to give this field entirely 
to the girls, and they go to farming or something 
else. 

Society is unjust to woman in the severity of 
its judgment when she falls, and it is never in 
the least forgiving. A stain on her character is 
deemed ineffaceable. 

But how shall all these wrongs be made right ? 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 63 

Give her the ballot. That is the cry which men 
set up every-where ; and if so, there must be 
virtue in the ballot. Still, we think the ballot is 
not a cure-all for every thing ; for, with an almost 
universal right of suffrage, men have not yet 
voted the world into a paradise. 

The right of suffrage is an abused right. In 
the misquoted language of our " Declaration," "all 
men," meaning mankind, including women, "are 
created free and equal;'' and therefore all have 
the right to vote. Now, the truth is, there is an 
immense inequality, and a tew men rule the 
whole nation invariably. It is said majorities 
rule. So they do, in theory. But minorities rule, 
in fact. Half a dozen men rule a whole state. 
They meet in some quiet room, and map out a 
campaign ; then call a " mass-meeting," or dele- 
gated convention. Measure after measure, as if 
it had just been brain-born, is proposed. Names 
and methods alike come as if just thought of, 
and the people cheer and vote and go home, 
saying, "We did wonderful things." The people 
only ratify the deep-laid schemes of the pol- 
iticians. 

In China, all state-officers are subjected to 
three examinations. The first is upon literature 
and the philosophy of Confucius ; the second 
is upon a practical knowledge of the business 



1 64 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

belonging to official life ; the third is upon morals. 
This may do for China ; but, if the rule were 
adopted in this country, we should soon be 
without a Congress. 

The greatest danger to which we are exposed, 
in this country, is in the suffrage question. 
Men crowd to the polls as the beasts of Noah 
went into the ark, " each after his kind." The 
men who run for office, as a rule, pander to the 
tastes of the vicious multitude, and will be their 
obedient servants always, until after election ! 

Mr. Parton, in his " Life of Aaron Burr," uses 
this strong language : 

*' Accursed be poUtics forever! the Maelstrom 
that has ingulfed so many able men. What 
talent it absorbs that is needed elsewhere ! 
How many fair reputations it has blasted ! 
What toil, what ingenuity, what wealth it has 
wasted, what lives it has sacrificed ! How mean 
are political methods and expedients, and how 
absurdly disproportioned are political triumphs to 
their cost ! Politics can never be reformed. To 
abolish politics altogether, is perhaps the atone- 
ment America is going one day to make to an 
outraged world, for sinking to the deepest deep, 
and wallowing in the filthiest filth, of political 
turpitude." 

The political press, how terrible its influence! 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 65 

The day a man becomes a candidate, he must 
consent to be slandered in the public prints. 
Sure enough, "How absurdly disproportioned are 
political triumphs to their cost !" 

Thomas Jefferson proposed to divide newspa- 
pers into four chapters : First, truths ; secondly, 
probabilities ; thirdly, possibilities ; fourthly, lies. 
The first chapter would be short, as it would 
contain little more than the authentic papers 
and information from such sources as the ed- 
itor could vouch for. The second would con- 
tain what, from a mature consideration of all 
circumstances, his judgment should conclude 
to be probably true. The third and fourth 
should be professedly for those readers who 
would rather have lies for their money than 
blank paper! 

We are in favor of woman's voting ; but more 
than this is needed. Our women must endeavor 
to arise to a higher point of culture. The 
"^mall talk" of society must be abandoned for 
something more solid. The sickly sentimental- 
ism of the innumerable novels must give place 
to Blackstone, Hallam, and Motley. 

A question of some importance arises just 
here. Will voting make woman any less wom- 
anly } One party affirms ; the other denies. 
Women are now, and always have been, the 



1 66 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

warmest politicians. It seems to us, the mere 
act of casting a ballot can not have influence 
sufficient to change her whole being. 

It is said, " If she votes, she must hold office." 
If, in the judgment of the people, she shall be 
deemed qualified for office, and shall receive votes 
enough, let her hold office. It will be nothing 
new under the sun. She does hold office now 
under the Government. " But it will bring her 
into the arena of political strife." Perhaps the 
strife will cease when she comes ; it generally 
does. " The polls are so rough." Then it is 
time they were reformed. Besides, we adjust all 
things to favor the ladies. On our railroad-trains 
we have "ladies' cars;" in our hotels, "ladies' 
parlors ;" at the depot, " ladies' waiting-rooms." 
So, at the polls we shall have "ladies' voting- 
rooms." 

" But it will divide families." The Church 
does that now. Husbands and wives often 
represent opposite religious, as well as political, 
opinions. 

" She will neglect her family." Men have 
been doing that for ages. Besides, there always 
have been unnatural mothers, and there always 
will be, whether women vote or not. 

" But Paul defines woman's sphere to be the 
house, the family, and to * keep silence.' " Paul 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 6/ 

only cautioned woman against being immodest ; 
nothing more. He told them to teach, publicly, 
with their faces veiled. He told slaves to be 
obedient to their masters ; but we deny that he 
ever advocated slavery. 

But we have little patience with these common 
objections. There is an argument for woman's 
ballot, which, to our mind, has power. This is a 
Republic, and in this form of government the 
ballot belongs to all the citizens. Already, by 
the Fifteenth Amendment, we have given it to 
the colored people. Every foreigner who comes 
to our shores, after a short time, can vote. By 
our Constitution now, properly interpreted, she 
has the right of suffrage, if she is a citizen. Is 
it doubted.^ 

The hope of this country is in its women, as 
much as in its men. Let woman vote, and the 
temperance reform can be made a success. Let 
woman vote, and politicians will have a new ele- 
ment to deal with in their canvass. 

Look at the influx of foreigners from all na- 
tions. The American people will soon be at the 
mercy of the Old World. Woman's voice, at the 
polls, will yet be needed in this country. 

Woman is what she is by the nature which 
God has given her, and we do not believe any 
mere human legislation will unmake her. She 



l68 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

will love and be loved under any condition of 
life. Man will be father, woman mother, to the 
end of time ; and the world will move on through 
all the future as it has through all the past. 

All the professions are opening to her. It is 
not unwomanly for her to ride in the physician's 
chaise, or write at the lawyer's desk; while the 
bank, the telegraph, the printing-office, alike bid 
her welcome. And every-where she now fills 
them successfully. 

It is not to be wondered at that we men are 
jealous of our homes ; and if the grant of suffrage 
would destroy our home life, we would oppose 
it strenuously. 

The cultivation of a wholesome independence 
needs not interfere with domestic matters; but, 
where woman is left to battle with the world, 
unaided, that independence is her capital. No 
woman is true to herself who is ashamed to 
work. Labor is royal. Mothers have great re- 
sponsibility at this point. No mother does her 
daughter justice who allows her to grow up 
without the education of the kitchen. Young 
men every-where remain single because they can 
not support these elegant young ladies. They 
fly to club-rooms, and there spend their time in 
revelry. 

The only true way to live in this world is to 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 69 

keep house. Boarding is too monotonous. Every 
well-regulated boarding-house has its method of 
supplying the table. The fragments of a big 
Sunday dinner will supply hash for two or three 
days. It is not agreeable for one to be able to 
calculate for six months ahead just what he must 
eat at a particular hour on any given day. A 
young man gets married, and goes to boarding; 
and, under this monotonous way of living, he 
gets the dyspepsia ; says cross things to Angel- 
ina. She cries, pouts, goes home to pa. He 
follows her, and the old gentleman has to keep 
them both. Have a home of your own, and you 
may be happy. 

The world has a problem to solve, which can 
not be postponed in relation to woman. Here 
we would say that the religion of Jesus puts a 
positive value on human life — on individual 
human life. Hence, it teaches equality. A re- 
public can not exist where atheism or paganism 
reigns ; for they put no value on the individual. 
Republics are peculiarly Christian. Hence, in 
the degree in which Christian civilization is ex- 
tended, do rulers lose sight of mere masses of 
flesh and blood, and think more of man, as such. 
Let the Gospel fill the hearts and minds of a 
people, and slavery is impossible as ice and snow 
are impossible in a July sun. The Gospel means 



I/O TPIE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

education as well as regeneration. It means 
manhood, womanhood, individuality. 

Now the world has a population of nearly 
twelve hundred millions, of whom five or six 
hundred millions are women. From the stand- 
point of paganism, they are mere creatures, and 
regarded as soulless — in no sense man's equal. 
Place, now, the mirror of our Christian civilization 
so that the focus of light will fall on them, and 
at once they spring into beautiful being. In the 
rudest and most ill-shapen block of marble, as 
it comes rough from the quarry, there is impris- 
oned an angel. So in every one of the four or 
five hundred millions of pagan women, is im- 
prisoned an angel ; and it only needs the touch 
of the Master Sculptor to effect its liberation. 

Here and there, in the march of the world, 
she has risen above the trammels which society 
has put upon her. She has peered out through 
the darkness that has enveloped her, and sought 
the light of the world. She has led armies to 
victory, as history, both sacred and profane, tells 
us. She has entered the fields of science and 
literature, and won the highest honor, as the 
names of Hypatia, of Alexandria, and Hannah 
More and Mrs. Somerville, of England, prove. 
She has found her way to the throne, and hung 
it over with garlands of beauty. Victoria and 



i 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 171 

Elizabeth are good examples. She was declared, 
by St. Paul, to be a most valuable adjunct in 
the Gospel ; while Jesus made her the first 
messenger to tell the world of his resurrection. 

In struggles for freedom in all lands, she has 
been bravest of the brave. A few even dared to 
enter the field of blood, sword in hand. Hunga- 
rian women did as much, and suffered as greatly 
to win back their ancient nationality, as Hunga- 
rian men. Some of the noblest patriots of Poland 
were her delicately reared women, 

France has written on her roll of honor, in 
letters of gold, the names of her noble women. 
In the days of our own hard struggle for freedom 
from British rule — while Jefferson wrote and 
Henry spoke words that shook the world, and 
Washington and Putnam drew their swords, to 
be sheathed only when freedom's battle-cry had 
turned to freedom's song of victory — the women 
of the Revolution, who worked in the fields to 
raise food for the starving troops, who dressed 
the wounded and nursed the sick, and encour- 
aged the enlistment of troops, did as much to- 
ward laying the foundation of the great Republic 
as the men who carried the flag to the cannon's 
mouth. 

Woman has stood in the forefront of society 
from the beginning of time. Her nature has 



172 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

never changed. It never will. Love of husband, 
of child, of home, is her strongest passion, fast- 
rooted in the heart-soil of her womanhood. 

Yes, give her the ballot, and trust her. It was 
not woman who betrayed the Son of man. And 
when he hung upon the cross, she alone, of all 
his friends, stood by him. It was woman whom 
Paul so honors with his kindliest salutation as 
"helpers in the Gospel." In her relation as wife 
and mother, to what extremes of neglect, and 
abuse even, has she not been driven, almost 
without complaint, and cherishing hope when 
the world around her was dark, alcohol reigning 
in the place of love .'' In all the reformations and 
revolutions that have crossed the track of society, 
she has always been foremost ; and in times of 
the bitterest persecutions, she has gone bravely 
to the rack and the stake. She has marched in 
the van of every holy enterprise. She has been 
first to relieve the suffering, and last to desert 
the cause which has engaged her heart. In peace 
and in war, her influence has been immeasurable. 
Her pen, in the hand of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
did more to break the shackles of slavery than 
the eloquence of the orators of Congress. 

Give her the ballot, and trust her. She will 
be woman still. She will not descend into the 
slimy arena of politics ; but she will sweep it of 



I 



RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF WOMAN. 1 73 

its dust, and wash it from its filth, and garnish it 
into beauty. She will become more self-reliant 
and noble. Her brain v/ill equal her heart, 
and her life and that of her child will gather 
greatness from the conscious nobleness of her 
condition. 

Give her the ballot, and trust her ! She will 
use it with womanly grace. She will not betray 
her trust ; she will rise above the low expedients 
which men have used, as the sun lifts his crown 
of gold above the clouds and winds. Her foot- 
steps on the troubled waters of human life will 
be as the footsteps of the Son of God on stormy 
Galilee. 

SomQ one has said that every age has had its 
discoveries, but it was left to the nineteenth cent- 
ury to discover woman. In Eden she stood in 
the fore-front of history. There we lose sight of 
her, until we find her drawing water and playing 
the menial. Then, in chivalric times, she comes 
to the stage as the pretty Amazon, to dress the 
wound and bind her scarf about the knightly hel- 
met. And again, she appears as the Arcadian 
shepherdess and lovely wood-nymph. And. then 
came the courtly age, where she seemed to have 
no other earthly mission than to pile the hair on 
the top of her head four stories high ! But the 
discovery is made that woman has positive value 



174 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

in human society, and is one of its indispensable 
factors. She is an entity ; an integer in the 
arithmetic of life, not a mere cypher to fill up a 
space, and only give value to others. 

Woman, rise to your destiny ! The door once 
shut and bolted stands ajar, and oil is being 
poured upon its rusty hinges, and it will soon be 
wide open. There, hand in hand and arm in arm 
with man — heart beating with heart, soul kind- 
ling into a new fresh life with soul — virtuous, 
educated womanhood, combined with the master- 
ing force of educated noble manhood, shall send 
the wave of a superior civilization to break on 
every shore. All hail ! Let the world shout the 
jubilee of universal emancipation ! 




CHAPTER IX. 

"6V/// 2%/ /^^, O Christ arisen ! 
Yearfts to reach these souls in prison 
Throzigh all depths of sin and loss, 

Drop the plummet of thy Cross ; 

Never yet abyss was fonnd 

Deeper than that Cross conld soujidP 



^r; 


^sl 



PROPOS to the preceding chapter, we 
have a few more words to say about 
women. 
Our thoughts have been suggested by one of 
those incidents common to the Ufe of a pastor — 
I a funeral from which we have just returned. 

The idiosyncrasies of people are developed no- 
where more certainly than at funerals. We could 
write a curious book about them if we were dis- 
posed. We have learned never to measure the 
depth of grief which people seem to feel by the 
wailing one hears, for it is often quite heartless. 
The deepest grief is silent, like the best and more 

175 



1/6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

enduring piety. An old saying is true, "Empty 
wagons make most noise." 

We have learned not to pronounce extended 
eulogies over people when they die. If their 
lives were good, the community knows it ; if they 
were vicious, one can not say what ought to be 
said, if we speak at all, without causing pain to 
somebody. 

This funeral to which we now allude, was that 
of a young woman. Of her life we could gain no 
information. No one seemed willing to say any 
thing. It was a silent funeral. The silence was 
significant. The poor girl had been sent home 

from the city of C , whither she had — strayed. 

There she had lived a wretched life, and there 
she had died. To the Savior she may have looked 
in the last hour. She may have repented with 
tears. If she did, then it was well. We read the 
Scriptures, prayed, and moved in solemn proces- 
sion to the lovely cemetery where she, whose life- 
record can not be known to any but God, shall 
rest until the resurrection-day. 

O, it is a terrible thought, that at this hour, and 
in this age of Christian light, there are thousands 
who are seemingly lost to all good — swallowed up, 
soul and body, in a whirlpool of sin ! 

The question for us Christians to consider is. 
How shall they be reached ? They can be res- 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 1 77 

cued in some way ; they must be ! The world 
can never be reformed by society merely. So- 
ciety is cold and harsh in its judgments. Harsh- 
ness chills ; love melts, warms, saves. 

Do you want to save the fallen ? Go to them ; 
lay your throbbing heart against theirs ; speak to 
them, not as if they were outcasts, reprobates, 
and hopelessly lost. The beauty and power of 
the Gospel lies in its kindliness. We care not 
how low people may have descended — they are 
yet human. 

In that heart that is almost crushed with woe 

and sorrow and sin, there is yet a tender chord ; 

it is human. In opening a mummy-pit in Egypt, 

some years ago, a harp was found that had lain 

there for three thousand years ; yet, when the 

string was touched, it vibrated a sweet sound 

just as it did of old. So in poor human hearts 

that have been buried for years in poverty and 

sin, there are feelings and sympathies, that, when 

touched, will give off notes that are heavenly. 

O, if we would imitate the Master! if we would 

only cease to be so selfish, and instead, be real 

human, tender, and loving ; if we would reprove 

sin, condemn it in word and in life, but do it with 

sunshine in our face and heart-feelings in our 

words, then we might be more successful in 

reaching the very lowest in society. 
12 



178 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

In that beautiful account, given us in the 
eighth chapter of John's Gospel, where the 
woman^ guilty of grossest crime, was brought 
before the Savior, his words must not be under- 
stood as encouraging sin. Why did he say, 
" Neither do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no 
more?" Luke tells us: "For the Son of man 
is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save 
them." Again, he said, on one occasion : " Man, 
who made me a judge over you ?" " For God 
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world through him might be 
saved." " He that believeth on him is not con- 
demned ; but he that believeth not is condemned 
already, because he hath not believed in the 
name of the only-begotten son of God." " I came 
not to judge the world, but to save the world." 

Jesus did not occupy the throne of judgment 
then. His only mission was to save. He could 
have sanctioned the law, and condemned the sin- 
ful woman ; but he would thereby have obscured 
the higher law of love. Hence he says, "Neither 
do I condemn thee." But yet he does condemn- 
her sin, in the words, "Go, and sin no more." 
All sin is wrong. Much he needed not say. The 
poor offender felt it, knew it, acknowledged it all. 
Her look, her deportment, her word, if she spoke, 
were the revealings of a soul to the eye of One 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 1 79 

who sees the heart, and knows its powers and 
passions. 

We have in this account a beautiful picture of 
the relation of Christ to fallen humanity ; and 
that same relation subsists yet. We, as Chris- 
tians, have a mission to the world's worst class, 
unless we deny the words of Him who said, '' I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance." Now, we have a question to ask: 
May humanity sink so low as to be beyond hu- 
man reach, beyond the reach of salvation.!^ Let 
the Bible answer : " He saves to the uttermost 
them that come unto him." "Though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow , 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." 

There are many circumstances that operate to 
drive men and women to sin. The tendency of 
sin is downward. Depravity depresses the soul ; 
and this is the great cause. Some struggle 
against it, and lay hold on Christ ; they are able 
to overcome this downward tendency. But oth- 
ers make no effort ; they go down, step by step, 
until they reach the bottom, where they lie, in 
their loathsomeness and turpitude. 

But we would remind you here, that woman 
may be sunk to deeper depths of moral misery 
than man. Less strong than he to battle with 



l80 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the world, she is often inured to poverty and 
pain, to influences adverse to a life of virtue ; and 
thus she is drawn into a vortex of moral ruin. 

Society has been unjust to woman in many 
ways. Until a comparatively recent period, she 
has been denied the advantages of education. In 
all ages, and in all lands, she has been a slave to 
man. The sorrow and burdens of life have been 
heavy upon her. If she aspired to any thing 
higher, it was all in vain ; for her lot was fixed 
by universal sentiment. Her sphere was circum- 
scribed by four walls, while her only duty was to 
be a servant. In many countries, she has been 
even a beast of burden, doing the rougher, 
harder work of the field. But we live in a new 
age, a better age. Now she is educated and re- 
fined. There is no field of thought she may not 
explore ; there is no vocation to which she may 
not devote herself; no position she may not fill. 

But let us ask. What has thus elevated woman 
to her true place .^ The answer is, the religion 
of Jesus. Jesus saw in woman that tenderness, 
love, and virtue he admired, and honored woman- 
kind ; while she saw in him the " One altogether 
lovely." When the profane rabble and lustful 
priests insulted the Son of God, scourged him, 
crowned him with thorns in mockery, and sub- 
jected him to the infamy and agony of the cross. 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. iSl 

among them all there was not found one woman. 
He was respected by the men of Judea ; but by 
her women he was honored, assisted, and soothed. 
It was a woman that anointed him with ointment 
from an alabaster vase, and wiped his feet with 
the hair of her head. And beautifully did he re- 
ciprocate her. love. The widow of Nain mourned 
at the grave of her son ; Jesus restored him to 
life. Martha and Mary wept their departed 
brother ; Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. 
He went into the chamber of sickness, and cured 
Peter's wife's mother of a fever. Woman could 
approach in the crowded audience, and touch the 
hem of his garment, and be whole. At the well 
of Samaria, he became a "well of living water" 
to a poor Samaritan woman ; and when this poor 
woman, stained with crimes of deepest dye, is ar- 
raigned before him, pityingly he says, " Neither 
do I condemn thee ; go, and sin no more." Over 
him the women of Jerusalem wept, when he was 
so unjustly condemned. When he was hurtg on 
that cross, holy women were there to shed the 
tear of sympathy. Women came, with balm and 
spice, to the sepulcher, at the early dawn. The 
first word he uttered after his resurrection was to 
woman ; the first to receive a commission to pub- 
lish his resurrection was woman : " Go, tell my 
disciples that I have risen from the dead." 



1 82 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Woman owes her elevation to this same Jesus. 
Wherever his rehgion is taught, there woman 
takes her place by the side of man, his equal, his 
helper, filling the place assigned her by the God 
of nature. 

The bigotry of society has often driven woman 
to a life of shame. Let her do the same work 
performed by man, and do it as well, yet the 
opinion has prevailed that her time and her tal- 
ents are of less value than those of men. She 
has been denied a just compensation. She has 
been degraded in her own feelings, as she has 
earned the most meager support, toiling early 
and late, and almost starving in the midst 'of 
plenty. 

There is too much difference between the 
sexes in the matter of wages. The world is all 
wrong here, and needs to be set right. Human- 
ity calls for it ; and, as society advances to a 
higher plane of civilization, the call must be 
heeded, the claim must be met. 

Is woman so inferior to man that she has no 
voice in fixing the price of her own toil ? Has 
she no soul, no mind, to crave for a possession, 
a " local habitation and a name .?" Has she no 
wants in common with man that money can sup- 
ply.? Why has woman been oppressed through 
her whole history ? We boast of a superior 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 1 83 

civilization ; but why, to-day, is there such an 
inequality between the earnings of man and 
woman ? 

Go, glean the records of crime, and you will 
find that tens of thousands have yielded to the 
temptations of life, have been lost, soul and body, 
because of the paltry sum paid for woman's work. 
We do not speak of this as a cause ; poverty 
does not cause sin, though it may lead to it. 

Men have trifled with women. She has been 
led astray by those who should forever stand 
guard over her virtue. Sin has been encouraged. 
Fashions demoralizing to the taste, and tending 
to corruption, have been a'dvocated and applauded. 
Men, forgetting the sacredness of those names, 
wife, sister, mother ; losing sight of the Golden 
Rule, that teaches every nian to do unto others 
as he would that others should do unto him ; hid 
in the crowded city, — have descended from true 
an4 virtuous manhood, have followed the steps 
of the "strange woman" whose "way inclineth 
unto death." She is not alone to blame for her 
crimes. She is assisted, she is tempted, she is 
upheld in her wickedness. And the judgments 
of the Great Day will reveal to the assembled 
universe deeds that are now concealed, and 
sharers in crime who pass unsuspected through 
the world. 



1 84 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

But society is guilty at another point. Woman, 
in her spiritual condition, has suffered by the 
Fall, no less than man. Her ability to do good 
is impaired by her sad condition as a sinner. 
She suffers more ; her lot of life is harder than 
man's. Perhaps a brighter crown in heaven will 
be her compensation. 

We have said woman may be thrown into even 
deeper depths of moral wretchedness than man. 
Do you doubt it ? Look at her as she is often 
found in the dark and loathsome haunts of the 
city. Behold her in crimes that should make a 
demon blush! See her the wretched "outcast," 
from whom society turns away as from a sink of 
moral putrefaction, the cursed of God, the hated 
tool of despicable man ! What condition could 
be worse than this ? Sin sits on woman's char- 
acter even more unbecomingly than on man's. 
How awful is her profanity! An oath from 
woman's lips grates on the ear with harsher 
violence. A drunken woman is even a more 
horrible sight than a drunken man. Her nature 
is more sensitive than man's, and, when marred, 
the impression is deeper. 

Society takes its tone from woman. But yet 
society is guilty, before the bar of a righteous 
Judge, for some of its sentiments in relation to 
woman. In common with man, she is liable to 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 1 8$ 

sin — " to err is human " — but equally with man 
is she entitled to saving grace. But when wo- 
man falls, yields to the voice of pretended affec- 
tion, is led into temptation, puts confidence 
in beautiful promises, listens to the wooing of 
her rightful protector, then is deserted, then is 
spurned of friends and driven from the home of 
her youth and all she has ever learned to love, 
then is exposed, not only to the chill of Winter, 
but the still more death-dealing chill of society ; 
every one crying, "Away with her ! away with 
her !" and whispering scornfully, " She has been 
unfortunate," — knowing all this, knowing that 
the world has written on her back, in glaring 
capitals, that all may read as she is turned out 
to die, the terrible word "outcast," we do not 
wonder to see her in the coffin of the suicide, or 
buried alive in the grave of infamy. Such a fate 
she does not deserve. Such an end she does not 
crave. She pleads, with the eloquence of an 
angel, for home and protection and sympathy and 
kind words and forgiveness ; but she is told, in 
cold words, that her pleadings are all in vain. 
Society, though largely the cause of her misery, 
is inexorable; her doom is forever sealed. She 
appeals with her tears ; and these are her most 
eloquent appeal. O, what power there is in a 
tear, as it courses its way down over a cheek 



1 86 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

where sorrow has written its pale signature ! 
But society shuts her out to drop her tears on 
the cold earth, and sigh her very soul away in 
grief. No one pities, no one cares ; her destiny 
is fixed by an unrighteous opinion. She repents. 
God forgives, and puts upon her heart the seal 
of Heaven ; but society marks her as a thing to 
be hated. In the name of humanity and of love, 
we ask. Is this right ? Especially do we ask it, 
when we look at man guilty of equal crime — 
crime that wastes, crushes hope, and sends a 
broken, bleeding spirit to the grave. Society is 
partial. It does not administer the same rebuke 
to sinning man it does to sinning woman. The 
one is considered as lost to society; the other 
passes through the avenues of fashion and refine- 
ment, the more a hero. Is this just.? O, there 
Cometh a day, on the swift wings of time, when 
all wrongs shall be made right, when God will 
unbottle the tears that misfortune has shed, and 
from vials of wrath will pour them in burning 
torrents on the heads of those who have trifled 
with innocence and hurled virtue from its throne. 
Society rightly holds most sacred the virtue 
of woman, and the penalty of its violation is 
deemed its surest guardian. But society will 
never be just until, like God, it is forgiving. 
Such a day cometh. Then shall the erring be 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 18/ 

brought back, and their errors be forgiven. Then 
shall the unrepentant guilty be justly condemned, 
and virtue, wherever found, have its sure reward. 
And then shall the fiend, whose chief business 
it is to contaminate and ruin, be consigned to 
the great world's censure as '* creation's blot, 
creation's blank." 

What are we doing, let us ask, to reach these 
poor guilty ones in the lower places of life, the 
fallen } We are doing something. Every Church 
invites them. The Gospel calls them ; we offer 
them the Bible, In many cities there are soci- 
eties of ladies who seek them out, and do all 
they can to rescue them. They may not save 
all, they do save some. Who can estimate the 
value of one soul saved, one poor mortal turned 
from vice to virtue .-* Then let us discourage every 
thing that tends to debase our fellow-mortals. 
Educate womankind, remunerate her honest toil, 
treat her not as a toy, but as one with a soul and 
spirit for whom Jesus died. Lift from her the 
crushing weight of an unjust public sentiment. 
Let not the pure gold of her nature be beaten 
into tinsel, and molded into the mere forms of 
fashion and vanity. No ; but let her be what 
God intended, the purest and best part of the 
human race, the light of home, the angel of a 
better life. 



1 88 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Here is the mission of the Church. That mis- 
sion is to the sinner. Every man, every woman, 
every child, has a part in this salvation. The 
poor beggar that asks a penny at your door is 
your brother. The poor outcast from society, 
wandering in the cold, dark street, is your sister. 
There is a difference between you, we know — a 
difference of position in society, a difference of 
education, a moral difference ; yet what you are, 
they might have been ; what they are, you have 
escaped being. Now, how did Jesus treat these 
poor outcasts ? He took them to his heart. He 
saw in them what the world had never seen. He 
elevated humanity by calling the lowly to him- 
self. All could come. Let society build only 
on the rich, the learned, and the great, and its 
mission is a failure. Let it expend its force oh 
the downtrodden, the morally debased ; let it 
begin where Jesus began, and it will be a bless- 
ing to the millions. Go, then, to the hut of 
poverty. Go to the places of foulness and un- 
cleanness. Go to the hopeless and weary. Go, 
with a word of cheer. Go, with a brother's, 
a sister's sympathy. Go, touch poor humanity 
with a pure humanity, and God will bless your 
mission. 

And what a mission ! A man may make a 
fortune, counted by millions of dollars ; but when 



A PLEA FOR THE FALLEN. 1 89 

he is dead, and in his grave, it is soon scattered 
by other hands, and he lies forgotten in the dust. 
Or he may ascend 

** The steep 
Where Fame's proud temple shines afar," 

and live in the gaze of an admiring world ; but 
the steps of time, which hurry on the genera- 
tions, will soon cause his name to be forgotten : 
none will speak it, few will know it. Or life may 
be given up to selfish gratifications, pleasures, 
amusements, appetite; but these only clog the 
soul, and leave a wreck behind. Not so with 
those whose mission is to bless others. In such 
a work you ally yourself with the Infinite Father. 
You do a work that can not be forgotten. As 
long as the soul lives, in burning splendor before 
God's throne, your work will endure. Time may 
cease, worlds vanish away, systems change ; but 
the soul, saved through your effort, changes not. 
A word spoken to-day in a poor brother's or sis- 
ter's ear, will echo ten thousand years to come. 
It will not be forgotten, will not fade out; no, 
but grow brighter as the cycles roll on. 




CHAPTER X. 



^iil^r 



catiiHttl* 




. ''Szic/i music as the woods and streams 
Sang in his ear, he sang aloud.'''' 

HERE is in the human mind a desire 
for change. We are restless by nature. 
31 It would not argue much in our favor 
if we were always perfectly contented. Human 
restlessness is the road to improvement and dis- 
covery. 

The fact is, the soul is too great for this 
world ; nothing satisfies it. If we build a house, 
no sooner is it completed than we can see where 
and how we might have improved it ; and so we 
may go on forever, building and tearing down, 
rebuilding and improving. This is no fault of 
human nature. It is not fickleness, as. some 
might call it, but rather the creative power of 
the soul in active operation. 

To meet this want of the human mind, the 

190 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. I9I 

Creator has made "unity in diversity" the law 
of the universe. No two leaves on the same 
tree are alike, absolutely. The landscapes are 
unlike. The stars shine with different degrees 
of brilliancy ; the days change constantly through 
all the varying degrees of temperature ; the birds 
have songs as various as their forms ; the sizes, 
shapes, and colors of all the objects of sight, in 
both the animate and inanimate world, differ 
almost infinitely. 

And so it shall be in our spiritual future. We 
shall explore the whole universe, which stretches 
off into the unmeasured depths of space. Our 
employment through eternity shall be to roam 
over these fields, whose treasures of knowledge 
shall give exercise to our soul-powers through 
the eternal years of God. 

That portion of the globe known as the Tem- 
perate Zone is, of all others, the most desirable. 
It affords a greater variety than any other. 
Hence, it has produced the greatest men, and 
exercises the greatest influence on the destiny 
of the world. 

There is a most delightful experience in the 
changes of the seasons in this zone. Cold, ice- 
bound Winter is welcome when we have been 
satisfied with the pleasure-trips and hot days of 
the lonsf Summer. And then how sweet are out- 



192 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

bursting Spring and blooming Summer, with 
their buds and tressy forest-branches, with their 
(freshness and Ufe ! 

A morning or evening ride to the country, 
where the landscapes are bright and the air is 
sweet and pure, where one can commune with 
nature in her purity, is one of the greatest sources 
of enjoyment. And especially is this pleasurable 
in the days of sweet, leafy June, when the flowers, 
which have been called " the alphabet of the an- 
gels," are in full bloom, filling the air with their 
fragrance ; when the birds are warbling forth their 
sweetest music ; when all nature seems to be 
exulting. There is indeed beauty in every thing 
which meets our eyes. 

What an endless variety of objects we meet at 
every turn in life, even in a drive of a few hours ! 
And as the eye beholds them, representing every 
form and color, from the tall and graceful tree 
which casts a cooling shadow by the way-side, to 
the noxious weed ; from the docile ox to the 
creeping worm ; from the winding river to the 
tiny rill that goes gurgling across the road ; from 
the far-reaching lanscape to the frail gossamer 
that swings in the air, — the question is often 
asked, " Is there any thing in this world that is 
useless?" 

We are believers in the existence of God, whose 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 193 

intelligence is manifested every-where, whose 
goodness equals his wisdom ; and, hence, con- 
clude that nothing which he has created fails 
to reflect in some way the glory of the Creator. 
The " firmament showeth his handiwork ;" the 
" heavens declare his glory ;" hence, all things, 
whether animate or inanimate, being related to 
absolute truth and goodness, are, in some sense, 
useful and beautiful. 

Running through the whole extent of creation, 
there are beautiful adjustments of parts among 
themselves, and of all parts to the whole. 

The forces of the physical universe are so cor- 
related that there never can be a realization of 
that dream of the poet : 

" The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds." 

If there existed in the solar system one pound 
of matter more than does exist, then the physical 
system would be imperfect. If the fiat of the 
Almighty should strike out of being the smallest 
planet of space, then the whole machinery of the 
universe would have to be readjusted to the new 
condition, just as the raising of the tone of one 
of the pipes of an organ a semitone or less, re- 
quires that the whole forest of pipes shall be 
changed to correspond with it. Here is the 
foundation of that well-established law known to 
13 



194 THE BLACK. HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the world of science, by whose unvarying opera- 
tions no matter in existence, however it may 
change its form, can cease to be ; no force in the 
universe will cease to pulsate in space some- 
where, without the direct intervention of the 
Creator. 

True, we may not be able to understand how 
this can be ; yet we do know, by an experience 
running through the ages — an accumulated expe- 
rience — as well as by the declarations of the Word 
of inspired wisdom, that in stability as well as 
wisdom the foundations of the world are laid. 

We do not doubt the being of One who is in- 
finitely wise. Then, we venture nothing when 
we say, not even a particle of matter has been 
made in vain — that it could as well not be as to 
be. We think the physical philosopher must be 
impressed with this, when he reads the chapters 
which God has written in the book of nature. 

Our text-books taught us, when we were chil- 
dren, that nothing could be destroyed ; that if 
we were to burn a piece of wood in an oven, and 
then collect the gas, the vapor, and charcoal, and 
weigh them, the weight of these several sub- 
stances combined, would exactly equal the orig- 
inal piece of wood. And when we learned this, we 
were taking lessons in a philosophy whose teach- 
ings did not stop with a piece of wood, but 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. I95 

related, as well, to the soul — comprehended eter- 
nity as well as time ; a philosophy of which that 
brief lesson was only the alphabet, but whose 
constant unfoldings eternity alone can measure. 

There is much said, in these times, of force, 
its correlation, and its conservation. Much that 
is said is true, and much untrue. But this one 
thing is certain, and it is a truth which lies at' 
the basis of all true philosophy ; namely, that all 
mere force of every kind is an effect, and points 
to mind, to Infinite mind, as its source. A wave 
of motion may have been set in operation ages 
ago ; that wave has come down along the track 
of the centuries, the result of a propelling power 
lying back of it. Matter and force make up the 
material universe, of which mind is the efficient 
cause ; so that the true philosophy of the world 
is its theology, and that rests on the belief in 
one God, who is the maker and upholder of all 
things. 

Then, we have mind, matter, and force. Mo- 
tion is not force, but the result of force. A flower 
is composed of particles of matter ; but how 
were these particles of matter brought together .^ 
By mind ; for there is here contrivance and dis- 
tinct lines of beauty. But how did mind act 
thus in bringing these particles of mere matter 
into such exquisite forms of beauty as you see in 



196 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

these flowers which bloom around us every-where 
in Summer-time ? We answer, by the laws of 
force, producing motion. But how does motion 
have to do with the creation of a rose or a lily ? 
These particles of matter have no power to put 
themselves in motion ; hence, they have been 
moved to their places — to the stem, the leaf, the 
petal, or the stamen — to which point they could 
not have gone of themselves. 

Now, we take up that delicate flower, and look 
upon its form, so graceful, so beautiful. We inhale 
its delicious aroma; it is nothing but inert matter. 
How came it into being ? Who is its author ? 
And there is only one answer : God made it, and 
he made all things. So we may mount up this 
ladder, from the hyssop that springs out of the 
wall, to the cedar of snow-crowned Lebanon ; and 
on, upward to suns and systems : matter and force 
make up the worlds of space. But God, the in- 
finite and invisible, is the Creator of them all, 
and his mind controls all. 

Growing out of this general principle of crea- 
tion and government of matter and force, we 
come to consider the qualities of things. Now, 
the qualities which inhere in things, entities, are 
as important as these things themselves. 

Suppose, for a single moment, that the visible 
creation had no variety ; suppose the animals all 



I 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 1 97 

had the same form ; suppose all animals were 
horses, — do you not think we should have rather 
too much horse ? Suppose all birds were of the 
same plumage. Even if all were peacocks or birds 
of paradise, we should long for crows ! Suppose all 
nature had been dressed in garments of blue, from 
the sod on which we tread to the overarching 
canopy, then certainly we should all have had 
the blues ! Imagine what endless confusion there 
would be if all people looked alike, and how mo- 
notonous and unpoetic this world would be. In 
no respect do we see the great wisdom of the 
Creator more than in the order which reigns 
every-where, even amid seeming disorder. 

We have said that nothing was made in vain. 
The seemingly useless in nature, upon which we 
stumble at almost every step, is as useful as we 
are. A sponge is a part of the general plan — so 
is man ; and the sponge has its mission in the 
organized world, just as surely as a human being 
has his mission. Angels are greater than men, 
and men are greater than beasts ; yet in your 
place you are as grand as an angel, and in its 
sphere the snail which creeps across our pathway, 
or the insect which sings in our ears, is as grand 
as we. 

Infinite wisdom is displayed as certainly in the 
wings of the butterfly as in the spreading out of 



198 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the solar system. The microscope surveys a 
world even more wonderful than the telescope. 

In no respect has the Great Architect made 
this quality an unessential. Things in nature, as 
they are, are right. We call some good, others 
evil ; some beautiful, others the reverse, un-hesiu- 
tiful. But we must not forget that beauty is a 
relative quality. 

The critics tell us of one kind of beauty that 
is intrinsic, and of another kind that is relative. 
So, according to the critics, every object in nature 
is beautiful in some sense. For, there is the 
" beauty of utility." That which is of use has 
a beauty allied to its usefulness, and is peculiar 
to itself A lump of charcoal blackens your 
fingers when you touch it ; yet it is possessed 
of a certain kind of beauty, which has ref- 
erence to furnaces and the smelting of ores. 
Hence, our definition of beauty, in this case, 
implies the purposes to which the charcoal 
is put. 

We say of a rose that it is indeed beautiful, not 
for its use, in the sense of the word when applied 
to a block of charcoal, but as a something in 
itself lovely to the eye ; for, were it to vanish at 
our touch, or fly on our approach like the mirage, 
we should yet exclaim. How beautiful ! There is 
a correlation between certain forms and hues and 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. I99 

the soul of man, by which the former affect and 
excite the latter. 

But are all things useful ? We answer, They 
are, though we may not always see in what man- 
ner. The works of God are full of compensa- 
tions. We can not divine the use of poisonous 
vermin. Yet their existence argues utility in 
some way — hence, beauty. 

The earth and the air teem with life, seen 
and unseen ; but, to our limited comprehension, 
the existence of multitudes of beings seems 
like a contradiction between the power of God, 
on the one hand, and his wisdom and goodness, 
on the other. Faith comes to the relief of the 
inquiring mind as it stands in the presence of 
nature, just as the astronomer's glance dissipates 
the shadows of unmeasured distance, and brings 
to view worlds of light. 

What a useless waste of seeds there seems to 
be in the vegetable world ! If all the thistle- 
seeds which are sent forth on downy wings were 
to take root in the soil, the whole earth would 
soon be one vast thistle-bed. And then, what 
were thistles made for, anyhow ? Noxious weeds 
grow up in our gardens, only to blight and be a 
pest, choking the more useful plants. Have they 
a mission, or not } So we may ask of many other 
things which we see every day of our lives. 



200 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

We have patches of land that are perfectly- 
sterile, and seemingly without value. But on the 
general principle of compensation, whether we 
can see now or not, there is concealed within 
them, somewhere, a treasure of some kind ; and 
time will reveal it. We know it requires a great 
amount of coolness and depth of philosophy, not 
to say of faith, always to see the "beauty of util- 
ity." But how our Heavenly Father has set real 
and inherent beauty in his works which are spread 
out before us ! 

Rivers do not flow in straight lines — the short- 
est distance between two points — but, in beauti- 
ful, graceful curves, they wander from mountain- 
slope to sea-shore. Here is utility in beauty ; for, 
while this stream of waters glides along its wind- 
ing channel, the waters are retarded in their 
course, and hence the evaporation from the sur- 
face is greater ; more moisture is imparted to the 
adjacent earth ; vegetation is correspondingly 
more luxuriant ; more flowers beautify the mead- 
ows and sweeten the air, and richer fruits are 
offered to the hungry. 

Nature has shown a great preference for curves 
over straight lines. A circle is more beautiful 
than a parallelogram, because it is more simple. 
The boughs of the trees do not project in stiff 
lines, but they curve with ease and grace. The 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 201 

leaves could have been cut in squares or paral- 
lelograms or diamonds, like the old-fashioned 
bed-quilt ; but nature has given them an infinite 
variety of patterns, from almost a perfect circle 
to the lance-blade or spear. 

How carefully has nature penciled the flowers ; 
the same color passing, by imperceptible grada- 
tions, from the deep and rich to the pale and 
shallow ! 

The earth itself might have been made as 
smooth and even as a prairie, without a hill or 
rock to rise above the level plain ; but what a 
monotonous world this would have been in that 
event ! 

They who think that the torn crust of the 
earth, in which the granites from below have 
been heaved up, is on account of man's sin, have 
a perverted idea of the great world-plan. We 
wonder how the world could have been utilized, 
if all the minerals and metals had lain down 
deep buried under miles of superincumbent rock. 
How could we have found the coal from whose 
darkness we get light, and from whose coldness 
comes heat ? How could we have lived without 
iron, copper, gold, and all the metals ? 

God has made the earth more beautiful, and 
more useful, by breaking up the earth's crust, 
raising up mountains, and scooping out valleys. 



202 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

He has done this all over the earth's surface. 
Here comes rushing up a trap-dyke ; there the 
whole fossiliferous strata have been washed away, 
and azoic rocks turn their plutonic sides to the 
almost melting sun from age to age. Here the 
coal-measures are wanting, and the " new red " 
caps the "old red sandstone." And anon the 
whole tertiary group are swept away by some 
denuding agency, and the black lines of the 
carboniferous rise to the surface. 

Just how all these changes have been induced, 
we do not know perfectly. Some say from the 
fires within. Possibly so, but perhaps not. They 
tell us that the mountains are upheaved from 
below. This may be true, but possibly the earth 
moved very tardily on its axis in the mountain- 
forming age of our planet; and these tall peaks, 
which cleave the sky, are only the congealed 
drippings from a molten state, the icicles on 
the eaves of this great world-house ; or, perhaps, 
they are the wrinkles in the crust of a shrinking 
world. We do not dispute the time-honored 
theory of internal fires, nor do we know that the 
contrary could be demonstrated. But because 
heat increases as we go toward the center of the 
earth, therefore, say the philosophers, the interior 
is a sea of molten fire. Then a fly might say, 
if it could speak, reasoning in the same way, as 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 203 

it sends its proboscis through the skin of an ox, 
that, as the heat does evidently increase, the 
ox must be red-hot on the inside ! 

God has, indeed, worked up the hills and val- 
leys, the rivers and trees, the flowers and birds, 
into most beautiful forms, and he has fitted the 
human soul to receive the impressions which 
these are capable of producing; so that one is 
the counterpart of the other, just as the eye is 
constructed with reference to the laws of light. 

An appreciation of the beautiful is a matter of 
cultivation. In the uncultivated, that which is 
gaudy, abrupt, and bold in color or form, excites 
the greater admiration. Flashing colors of the 
brightest hue, shimmering tinselry and dazzling 
brilliancy, are the standards of the semi-civilized ; 
but, as art advances, the taste becomes subdued, 
and beauty lies in delicate tints and harmonious 
blendings of color. The taste becomes refined; 
and the arts of a refined age or people are as 
distinct from those of the unrefined as the whole 
civilization of the one is distinguishable from 
the other. And all this is true, whether we 
speak of music, painting, or sculpture. This 
finds illustration in the history of the fine arts 
among the ancients. In the days of ancient 
Greece, the simple and beautiful Doric order of 
architecture prevailed. This was succeeded by 



204 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the Ionic ; then came the conquering Romans, 
and, with them, the Corinthian order of archi- 
tecture. Finally the tastes of the people changed, 
when the composite, with all its extravagance, 
prevailed. The difference between the Doric 
and composite was just the difference between 
Greece in the days of her philosophers, poets, 
and statesmen, and Greece under the rule of the 
voluptuous Romans. The taste had degenerated 
when the ornate, composite style of architecture 
was admired above the simpler orders of a former 
period. 

An uncultivated gardener will set out his trees 
and shrubbery in straight lines, and cut his paths 
at right angles with each other, with all the stiff- 
ness of military precision ; while the cultivated 
horticulturist will place these same shrubs in 
knots and clumps, as if Ceres had let fall the 
seed in handfuls here and there over the earth, 
in her rapid flight. 

Boisterous vociferations, with loud beatings of 
drums, are the music of semi-civilized nations; 
while in civilized and cultivated lands such 
sounds only serve to wake up thoughts of Pan- 
demonium. 

Mankind must be taught to appreciate the 
beautiful in music, in poetry, in painting, and 
in sculpture. The mind must be taught to view 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL, 205 

nature, the mother of all art, in the true way, 
and learn to ''look through nature up to nature's 
God." 

Mountains inspire in us one class of feelings, 
while the wide-spread prairie produces quite an- 
other. People who live on the sea-shore, where 
they hear the thunder of the surges, have 
thoughts and feelings which are quite unlike the 
thoughts of those who live inland. Mountainous 
regions have produced the best statesmen ; the 
sea-coast the best poets. Looking up to the 
rocky cliffs of towering mountains has an ele- 
vating tendency on the whole being, giving it 
strength and endurance. All travel in mount- 
ainous regions requires more effort, and hence 
develops a stronger will-power. Mountain-born 
soldiers have ever been noted for possessing the 
qualities which win battles. Forests produce the 
next best. But go and sit upon the sea-rock 
alone, where the wave sprinkles over you the 
briny spray, 

" Where the green buds of waves 
Burst into white froth-flowers," 

and the sea-gull sails around you on white wing, 
and before you spreads the bosom of the " troub- 
led sea which can not rest," and ships lie se- 
curely in the offing, and the dim horizon bounds 
in magnificent distance the circle of your vision ; 



206 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

and, if you do not feel poetic, you may conclude 
that you have a heart of iron, or a soul never 
touched by the finger of music. Say what you 
will of the philosophy of the materialist, there is 
at least a degree in which it is true. 

Now, through all these forms of beauty in 
ocean, earth, and air, God teaches us. These 
are the alphabet by which he spells out the true 
philosophy, and ascends from particulars to the 
whole ; and it does not matter much at what we 
look, the lesson is the same. 

Take up a single crystal of any given sub- 
stance, and trace its lines of beauty. The planes, 
considered singly, may be unequal, but the angles 
are unvarying, and the whole is perfect. By 
some strange law, these forms are identical in 
every part of the world. Or look at the modest 
little flower that blooms at your feet ; analyze it, 
and you will be impressed with the perfections 
of its mechanical arrangements ; while it will 
form a study as complex, if you descend to the 
cell-tissue and the vascular system, as the most 
wonderful piece of mechanism. 

Then the color, with all the delicate shadings ; 
the aroma which is emitted from its pores to 
sweeten the air ; the medicinal virtues, too, which 
are treasured up in this wonderful structure, to 
obtain which the whole must be crushed and 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 20/ 

broken, deprived of its loveliness, — is it not won- 
derful to consider how strangely the great Cre- 
ator has mingled in the earth the useful with the 
beautiful ? 

Besides, there is not a spot on this whole earth 
where beauty, in some form, does not greet the 
eye. Over us are the fleecy clouds, assuming a 
thousand shapes to our fancy, from playful chil- 
dren to white-winged angels of light. How we 
have watched them changing their forms like 
fairies — God's panorama of dissolving views ! 
Then the moon, which treads her evening path- 
way along the skies, throwing her beams of 
beauty on us, ever and anon, from out the silvery 
clouds ! Or gaze upon the heavens at night, when 
the earth is mantled in her cloak of snow, and 
how bright the stars ! How well the childish 
rhyme, even, expresses the profounder inquiry of 
the philosopher : 

" Twinkle, twinkle, little star ; 
How I wonder what you are !" 

Thus we are lost in amazement ; and the more 
we look, the deeper we plunge into the blue ethe- 
real depth of space, the more we cry out, O how 
grand, how beautiful ! Stand and gaze upward 
on these spangled worlds, and remember what 
the Savior said : " In my Father's house are 
many mansions." There they are ; look at them ! 



208 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

He must be blind, indeed, who does not see an 
infinity of beauty above us. 

Or go wander along the banks of yonder river. 
See the flowing waters, and hear their gentle 
murmurings. Catch the exquisitely tender notes 
of the feathered songsters that live in those deep 
clusters which skirt the winding stream. Gaze 
upon the rich colorings of the leaves, the varied 
hues of the flowers. Watch the flying shadows 
of the clouds as they chase each other over the 
far-reaching landscape, and the graceful forms of 
the fish as they dart by you in the limpid stream. 
Ah, this is one of God's paintings, which no 
artist can equal! He is the greatest artist who 
comes nearest to living nature, who imitates 
God. "The greatest man is he who has most 
of God in him." 

But what does all this do for us.^ is the prac- 
tical question we ask. What is the mission of the 
beautiful ? The answer is, to elevate us to a 
divine life. As a race, we are still in our in- 
fancy. This is the morning of the world's great 
day. There are powers locked up in nature, 
whose unfoldings will thrill men and angels with 
astonishment. The world in sin is abnormal. 
It is in fetters, groping its way in the dark, 
but reaching out its hands imploringly toward 
the light. 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 209 

The beautiful cultivates in us the ideal, and 
the ideal is spiritual. It reverses the lower 
tastes and passions, and gives impetus to the 
higher. Flower-gardens cost but little; and yet 
their value is incalculable, because of their refin- 
ing power. Statuary and paintings bring us into 
sympathetic relations with the masters of these 
refined arts ; and, as we follow their chisels and 
pencils, we are drawn toward the hands and 
hearts that have wielded them. The more we 
study the works of the masters, the more we 
become like them. Consequently, if they were 
true, the more true will we become. 

So has God set his signet of truth and beauty 
upon all his works, and their study draws us 
toward him. As we follow his pencil and chisel 
in the infinite paintings and carvings of nature, 
we shall come into a sweeter sympathy with him, 
and such a relation as will make us indeed more 
like him — more spiritual, more divine. Who can 
feel otherwise than exalted who looks up con- 
templatively at the heavens, the work of God's 
fingers ? Whose heart does not feel a thrill 
of holier manhood, who studies man, and con- 
ceives of his nobleness.? Who can feel impure 
and unholy amid the pure and holy of God's 
creation ? 

It was said of a certain Frenchman, convicted 
14 



210 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

of the crime of conspiracy against the Empire, 
that in his prison-yard he cultivated a few choice 
flowers in a small corner of the grounds. This 
came to the ears of Josephine and Hortense. 
They said he could not be a very bad man who 
loved flowers, and reared them in his prison- 
yard. They reasoned with Napoleon, the Em- 
peror, who pardoned him. These noble ladies 
thought well. He who loves the beautiful, gives 
sign that the heart is not wholly destitute of 
feeling ; there is some good there yet, which has 
survived the wreck. 

A coarse-looking deck-hand, on board a Mis- 
sissippi steamer, stood holding in his fingers a 
rose, on which he gazed thoughtfully. A lady 
saw it, and felt at once a desire to know his 
history. She went to him, and asked a few 
questions. He was of good birth. Friends had 
loved him — mother, sister, all had died ; but he 
had not forgotten them. He was fallen ; but in 
his' heart were the recollections of friends and 
home. Ah, that rose had its associations, and 
pointed to a heart not wholly lost! 

Then, again, as we rise to the ideal and the 
spiritual, we become purer. We are emancipated 
from the chains of physical sense. We Hve by 
faith, and read of God through the alphabet of 
his works. Go into that lofty cathedral. Walk 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 211 

slowly down the sacred aisle, and stand beneath 
the massive dome ; gaze upon the gorgeous fres- 
coes overhead ; look upon the massive pillars, 
built as if to challenge the wear of the ages. 
Yonder, on the altar, burns the dim taper ; 
and, filling all the temple, hear the swelling 
notes of the deep-toned organ! You feel like 
bowing your head, and saying, " God is in this 
place." 

Go out, now, into His greater temple. Look 
up into its dome, lighted up with .ten thousand 
stars ; behold the frescoes, blending their myr- 
iad forms and hues ; see those rocky pillars ; 
hear the deep-voiced thunder, whose mutterings 
make tremulous the air, — and who will say 
that God is not in this greater temple, whose 
foundations are in the earth, whose dome is in 
the heavens .'' 

Between the beautiful and the true there is a 
necessary relation. That which is not true can 
not be beautiful, in any exact sense. The monk 
who painted a picture of the children of Israel 
crossing the Red Sea, with the wall of waters on 
either side, and the noble figure of Moses in the 
foreground — and Miriam, with her timbrel and 
maidens, and the long procession following — 
made a very artistic picture ; but then he spoiled 
it by putting muskets upon the shoulders of the 



212 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Israelitish warriors ! The picture was not truth- 
ful ; and, hence, was not really beautiful. Ruskin, 
that peerless art-critic, would carry out the prin- 
ciple of truth so far as to carve the unseen part 
of a column as carefully as the portion falling 
under the eye ; and thus spare the beholder the 
unpleasant sensation which is produced in the 
mind by a consciousness of deception. 

But, to bring the principle of beauty into our 
life, has it a definite relation to us ? The beauti- 
ful in human life is the beauty of goodness and 
truthfulness, rather than that of person. The 
old saying, " Handsome is that handsome does," 
is founded in sublime philosophy. A good ex- 
ample is the best kind of a sermon. Jesus said, 
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will 
draw all men unto me." There is beauty in the 
cross, and there is beauty always in simple good- 
ness ; and the wonderful death on Calvary, which 
contemplated the redemption of the race of man- 
kind from grossness to refinement, from sin to 
holiness, from earth to heaven, had in it an in- 
finity of goodness. Men are drawn to it, and 
cry out, Ecce Homo! 

But there is a very marked diiference between 
simple admiration and love. We admire some 
things we do not love. We look with admiration 
upon the heroic among mankind, even in the 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 21 3 

deeds of enemies. The daring and skill of the 
robber may be of a kind to excite in us this 
sentiment, considered aside from the crime. 

The mistake men have made in reference to 
Christ is, that they have only admired where 
they should have loved. Admiration draws us 
to the cross, where we stand and look and cry 
out, " Surely, this was the Son of God ;" but 
love will prostrate us at the feet of Jesus, and 
cause us to exclaim, "Thou son of David, have 
mercy on us !" Admiration will impel us for- 
ward, until we shall say, " Surely, thou art a 
teacher come from God ;" but love will bathe his 
,feet with tears, and wipe them with the hair of 
the head. Admiration exclaims, " Master !" love 
cries out, " My Lord and my God !" Admira- 
tion will draw men up to the very gates of 
heaven ; love will take them in. And the 
beauty of your life will not be seen until you 
have come into this loving and beautiful relation, 
in which Christ dwells within you, " the hope of 
glory." 

Go and be a true man, a true woman. Open 
your ears to all the sounds and harmonies which 
come to you ; open your eyes to feast on the 
beauties your Father has spread out every-where ; 
open your heart to receive a heavenly inspira- 
tion, — and then go forth on a life-mission of 



214 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

goodness. Let us know well that a wonderful 
destiny is before us; a universe to explore, and 
an eternity in which to explore it. We shall 
live on, even though death smite us. The line 
of beauty is where the visible passes into the 
invisible. The distant curve in the line of 
vision is suggestive of some world beyond, where 
others are, whom we have loved here ; and 
where we hope to dwell. So that there is 
beauty even in death, with its coldness and its 
stillness. 

The thought of the invisible realm — the light, 
the joy, the beauty of heaven — overpowers our 
poor, feeble imagination. 

" Dreams can not picture a world so fair ; 
Sorrow and death may not enter there ; 
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom ; 
For, beyond the clouds, and beyond the tomb, 
It is there, it is there, my child !" 

And such is the life we are living. What 
thought-forces are impelling us onward! What 
attractions without are drawing us upward ! 

There are in our hearts, at this moment, 
sweet memories of the beautiful past. Many 
clouds have arisen on our life. Their shadows 
have been dark ; but, then, on those clouds the 
Infinite Father has placed the silver fringe, and 
over them spanned the bow of promise. 



MISSION OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 21$ 

For, what would life be without its shadows? 
It was Moore who said : 

" Then sorrow, touched by him, grows bright 
With more than rapture's ray ; 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 
We never saw by day." 





^^0 



CHAPTER XI. 



^tg«^li»e of gof'^'ow. 




" God hath created night, 
As well as day, to deck the varied globe ; 
Grace co?7ies as oft clad in the dusky robe 
Of desolation as in white attire. " 

HAT varied experiences the pastor of a 
large Church may have in one short 
Summer ! We have used the Black 
Horse and Carryall not alone for our pleasure, 
but for the comfort and good of others. Every- 
where we have met with the afflicted. Almost 
every house has in it one sick. Here, a child lies 
pining away, with some incurable malady ; and 
there, a strong man is sinking slowly, but surely, 
to the grave. Now, a beautiful girl, in the spring- 
time of life, wastes away with consumption ; and 
then, we go where an accident has fallen upon 
a young man, the sole support of a dependent 

mother. Here, a mother is taken from a family 
216 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 21 7 

of helpless children ; and there, a father is taken 
from a dependent household. 

We have had all these experiences in one short 
Summer ; and many others. 

We have derived no small degree of pleasure 
in taking the sick out into the fresh, sweet air. 
There are many of God's poor saints in this 
world shut up within doors, who are doomed to 
breathe impure air ; and see but little in the 
beautiful world, unless some one shall do as we 
have done. 

We have never felt more happy, nor more di- 
rectly in the line of our duty, than when thus 
bestowing our attentions upon some deserving 
saint, or cheering up the life of some sick child. 

It has also given us the opportunity of talking 
with and comforting the afflicted. There is a 
positive comfort in weeping with them that weep, 
and mourning with them that mourn. 

Such is a pastor's mission — to comfort in 
sickness, and minister to the dying. 

We have often felt that the very best illustra- 
tions which Christianity has, are those of the 
patient sufferers of the sick-room. The world 
needs such confirmations of the divinity of the 
Gospel. Sickness, pain, death, are so universal 
that one meets them at every turn. No one is 
exempt. And what is so universal must have in 



2l8 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

it some good, which we shall see hereafter. But 
why are some people afflicted so much more than 
others ? We know not ; but there is consolation 
in the thought that Infinite Wisdom rules the 
universe. Even a sparrow can not fall to the 
ground without the knowledge of God. No one 
can be sick, no one can die, without in some way- 
carrying out the plans of a wise and holy Provi- 
dence. Sickness, pain, and death have their 
mission in human life. An old writer said, " Per- 
fumes, the more they 're chafed, the more they 
render their pleasant scents ; and so affliction 
expresseth virtue fully." 

/^ There are times in the life of every one when 
faith becomes necessary to the heart's true com- 
fort. It is easy for us to live and be happy when 
health glows on the cheek and pulsates through 
the body, when no want pinches, when no clouds 
of adversity cast their somber shadows on our 
pathway. It is easy to be joyful when we are 
surrounded by our friends, who smile on us, and 
speak lovingly and cheerfully to us. J 

c But so varied is our existence, that we can not 
feel assured of these, as constant blessings of life. 
Days of sorrow will come, sooner or later, to all. 
The sun may shine brightly and sweetly to-day, 
but the cloud will come in the sky to-morrow. 
The heart may throb with health to-day, but to- 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 219 

morrow it may palpitate with disease. Friends 
gather about us to-day, to cheer us with their 
smiles and loving words ; but to-morrow they are 
prostrate under the withering touch of sickness, 
or motionless in death .J 

It is then that sight is insufficient. Reason 
does not answer our questions. The soul needs 
something higher than reason, better than mere 
sight ; it needs the holier light of Christian faith, 
to make beautiful the life and fill the heart with 
hope. 

In human life there seem to be many contra- 
dictions. Without taking into the account the 
Fatherhood of God, the immortality of the soul, 
the resurrection of the dead, life admits no ex- 
planation whatever. Contradiction follows contra- 
diction; mystery hangs her dark mantle over 
every thing ; gloom settles down on our poor 
hearts, and life becomes an intolerable burden in 
itself. 

But for our belief in God, in Christ, in the 
atonement, in the immortality of the soul, in 
heaven, in hell, we should look upon His stu- 
pendous creation, and view this vast universe of 
sentient creatures, with feelings of unutterable 
amazement. 

We look within, and what do we find ourselves 
to be } What feelings gather in our hearts ! 



220 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

What deep, pure sympathies for and with each 
other! What iove we find there, kindling into 
the strongest passion for each other ! Who can 
measure the depths of a mother's love for her 
innocent babe, as she presses the fond little 
treasure close to her heart.? Who knows the 
pride of the father, as he looks upon his son or 
daughter, rising into manhood's strength,, or bud- 
ding into the tender charms of womanhood ? 
How deep and pure and sacred is the love-tie 
that locks two hearts into one ; welding them 
into a common destiny ; inspiring them with the 
same hope ; making them one in joy, no less one 
in sorrow — inseparable even in death itself! 

What feelings of hope rise in the heart of 
mortals ; what aspirations after something high 
and grand and holy — something above mere 
sense ! What plans we make for life ! How the 
human mind grasps at that which is above itself — 
after the spiritual, the infinite, the eternal ! Now> 
put these all together. Gather up your feelings 
of sympathy, of love, of hope, of holy aspirations 
and desires, of pantings after something better 
than this life gives — something different from 
what this life affords — and then assume that there 
is no God, no Father, who looks upon us with 
pitying eye ; no Savior who is our ransom from 
sin ; no hereafter, — and you can see that life 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 221 

would have no explanation : it would be a deep, 
dark mystery, confounding our judgment, depress- 
ing our hearts, crushing out our hope. 

We have stood over the dying child, whose 
beating pulse told that its life was almost gone. 
We have stood and looked upon the awful strug- 
gles with death. We have paused and asked. Why 
is this } From theSe innocent lips has fallen no 
sentence or word of sin. In this childish mind 
has never come the thought of evil. In this lit- 
tle throbbing heart no passion of wrong has ever 
burned. Now, where is the explanation ? O, if 
there were no God, no Redeemer, nothing but 
blind fate, nothing but chance, what would life 
be worth } where would be our hope } But 
quickly our thoughts go up to God. " As a father 
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him." And that pity .is symbohzed— 
expressed. We go back to Calvary, where greater 
innocence perished in deeper woe ; where the just 
died for the unjust, in sufferings that can have no 
parallel in all our world's history ; where all the 
bitter consequences of our sin were heaped on one 
poor bleeding heart, until that meek sufferer cried 
out in groans and agonies that have sent their 
echoings to the ends of the earth, and up to the 
highest heavens — sufferings which onl}^ an in- 
finite mind could know, which only He could 



222 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

endure. And why all this deep grief, this infinite 
suffering of the Son of God ? It is all answered 
in those memorable words of John, " God is love." 
This was its best, its highest, its noblest expres- 
sion to man. 

Who can doubt the love of God to man, when 
he stands before the cross, where innocence died 
in the place of guilt — when one poor body carried 
all our woes ? 

"O love divine, what hast thou done ? 

The incarnate God hath died for me ; 
The Father's co-eternal Son 

Bore all my sins upon the tree ! 
The Son of God for me hath died ; 
My Lord, my Love, is crucified !" 

Here is our only source of comfort — our only 
hope : " Earth has no sorrows that heaven can 
not heal," Earth has no mysteries that heaven . 
will not explain. 

We have said, over dying innocence: Calvary 
and heaven, the cross and the throne, — these, and 
these only, can solve our dark problem. Sin is 
an awful blot on human character. Man must 
know its depth and foulness ; and to teach him 
that lesson, Jesus suffered ; and, to keep ever in 
his mind the sin and the atonement, we live in a 
world whose days are often passed in pain, whose 
nights are often spent in sorrowful watching. It 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 223 

is written, " By terrible things in righteousness wilt 
thou answer us, O God of our salvation !" And 
what is only the more difficult for us to compre- 
hend is, that the innocent often suffer more than 
the guilty. It must be that we are thus more 
effectually taught. 

There is something vicarious in the sufferings 
of a dear friend, when those sufferings reach and 
move our hearts as they should, that Jesus accepts 
and identifies with his own. The good of all 
ages are one with Jesus. When innocence suffers 
to-day, it is but the echo of Calvary ; the groans 
of Gethsemane ; the cries of humanity wafted on 
the wings of time, adown the ages, from Calvary. 
" If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with 
him." Jesus suffered in the prison with Paul ; 
he was, in a sense, re-crucified with Peter; he 
burned with the martyrs in Nero's garden ; his 
heart throbs with sympathy for human grief, to- 
day, as keenly as when he sat at the well of 
Samaria, or wept at the grave of Lazarus. He 
is an "eternal sacrifice" for sin; he has gone up 
to heaven, " touched with the feelings of our in- 
firmities." When any of Christ's disciples suffer 
meekly and patiently, that suffering is sanctified 
to some good end. Christianity has need of 
illustrations in the sick-room. To endure hard- 
ness, as good soldiers of Christ, is as much a 



224 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

duty as to "rejoice evermore," or to " pray with- 
out ceasing." Many of God's most honored 
servants have been made "perfect through suf- 
fering." This only can explain to us the pains 
and sorrows of God's children ; and, in it all, the 
disciple and the Master have one common Father. 
The Lord is above the disciple. But as he was 
made perfect through suffering, so are we ; as he 
came off victorious, so shall we ; as he was made 
glorious, so we shall be glorious. " We shall be 
like him, for we shall see him as he is ;" and the 
fact that we see him, will be a proof of our 
resemblance to him in glorious spirituality. 

There are many events daily occurring in the 
world that seem to deny the paternal care of 
God. A ship goes sailing on the ocean, while 
on her decks are the loved ones of a hundred 
homes. A cloud rises in the distant sky, no 
larger than a man's hand. A little breeze is felt, 
but scarcely enough to fill the sails. But that 
little cloud grows into fearful proportions, and 
that stirring breeze becomes a gale. The black 
cloud hangs in the sky, while over its dark bosom 
the red lightnings play in awful grandeur; and 
the gale spreads and deepens until the ocean is 
lashed into fury. The ship rides grandly for a 
while, until at last the hard-strained timbers yield 
to the heavy sea-pressure, and down into the 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 22$ 

undisturbed chambers of the ocean she plunges 
to her resting-place, with all of the life and 
love and hope which freighted the noble craft. 
Here is mystery to all but the believer in the 
fatherhood of God. The atheist says, "Where 
is now thy God .''" The Christian, sinking with 
the ship, points out even from those seething 
waters, and cries, " God's ways are in the deep ;" 
or sings, as he goes home: 

" He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm." 

Be it in death, or in shipwreck; or in the de- 
vouring flame that spreads its desolation over the 
abodes of men ; or in the fatal lightning that 
strikes us down in the twinkling of an eye ; or in 
the quaking earth, when cities, that have stood 
the pride of centuries, topple into ruins; or the 
belching of volcanic fires over the abodes of 
men, — we answer, God is in them all. His 
presence is as much manifest in the still small 
voice as in the whirlwind and the .tempest. He 
watches the sparrow as it falls; he counts our 
tears ; he numbers our sighs. He is our Father, 
full of pity and love to mortals. 

If we trust to the simple sight of the eye, or 
the power of reason, in weighing the mysterious 
dispensations that involve human hopes and in- 
terests, we must become bewildered, confused, 
15 



226 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

and hopeless. The language of Thomson is full 
of meaning : 

" There is a Power 
Unseen, that rules the illimitable world, 
That guides its motions, from the brightest star 
To the least dust of this sin-tainted world ; 
While man, who madly deems himself the lord 
Of all, is naught but weakness and dependence." 

And were we to fly from Providence to nature, 
to seek an explanation of our griefs, our sorrows, 
our bereavements and misfortunes, we should 
only go into a realm of deeper darkness ; we 
should only find ourselves the victims of blind 
material forces. And these, though they were 
to crush us, could give no balm to heal — could 
give us no hope in our darkness. 

God, our Father, is our safest, our best creed. 
Nature is but the hammer with which he strikes 
the harp on which he plays the anthems of his 
will. And we, submitting to all that God does, 
or yielding to what he "suffers to be done," 
make ourselves one with him in plan, in pur- 
pose, in good, as we are one with Christ in suf- 
fering. In this sense we can say : 

"All nature is but art unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see ; 
All discord, harmony, not understood; 
All partial evil, universal good." 

Health is not always the boon of mortals. The 
first sob of the new-born babe tells of pain, and 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 22/ 

is the symbol of its life. We weep before we 
smile. Pain goes before pleasure in the life of 
mortals. Both enter into life's composition. Life 
may have its ills, but it has its good. Many are 
the rainbows of beauty and joy and promise that 
arch grandly over the life of mortals. Many are 
life's glad hours, bright days, sweet hopes, and 
warm loves. And they who see only ills, and 
feel only griefs, see and feel not as they should. 
He whose ear catches only discords in the Psalm 
of Life, has not heard aright life's great anthem. 
These are the contrasts that vary life. They are 
not contradictions ; they are but the bringing to- 
gether, in one harmonious aggregate, diverse yet 
kindred elements of life and hope. Life is a pic- 
ture sketched by a Divine Artist, and carried to 
its completion in the existence of man. Rocks 
rise on its hills ; waters oft murky flow in its 
valleys ; oceans beat it with their ceaseless 
surges ; winds sweep through its forests ; flowers 
bloom on its banks of sunshine, and cold snows 
and warm suns chase each other through its 
seasons. A picture divine in its conception, har- 
monious in its execution : the light deepens the 
shadow, the shadows intensify the light ; and 
without either, the picture would be incomplete. 
It was said of Queen Elizabeth that, disre- 
garding the laws of art, she ordered her portrait 



228 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

to be taken without any shadings. And so we 
often view the shadows of hfe, the sufferings, dis- 
appointments, and reverses we meet, as so many 
mere blots on the canvas. But the Divine Artist 
knows better than we how important these are 
to the harmony and beauty of the whole. They 
only have seen the world aright who have looked 
upon it through the medium of tears. 

" Man grows by suffering ; 't is his Maker's plan : 
Each, till he suffers, is but half a man." 

This life has, for its main object, discipline. 
And that life is not lost that has been one of 
poverty, sickness, bereavement, and disappoint- 
ment, if these have been received as coming from 
our Heavenly Father, even though every other 
consideration of life has been lost. 

To work the results of discipline in our hearts, 
every kind of sorrow may overtake us. Our 
dearest friends may all be taken from us, and 
enemies may rise in their place. We may be 
stripped of all our property in a moment of time. 
We may become the victims of disease that only 
laughs at the skill of the physician. We may 
be the prey of moral vultures, whose delight it 
is to feed on ruined reputations. "But he that 
endureth to the end, shall be saved." To be 
saved is the great end, rather than to have 
reputation, health, property, friends, ease, and 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 229 

comfort. We seek those because of the pleasure 
they aJETord us. God gives these because of the 
good they may do us. "No chastening for the 
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nev- 
ertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness unto them which are ex- 
ercised thereby." " Whom the Lord loveth he 
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he 
receiveth." 

" Heaven but tries our virtues by affliction ; 
And oCt the cloud which wraps the present hour, 
Serves but to brighten all our future days." 

In this view, then, it matters but little when 
we die, where we die, or how we die ; whether in 
youth or age or infancy; whether surrounded by 
friends or enemies ; whether we are rich or poor, — 
providing life's great end has been achieved. 
And through its discipline we are brought up 
into spiritual maturity. Discipline is not pleas- 
ant to our senses. We shrink from it. But the 
Father sees it best for us to suffer; and many of 
his dear children look up through tears, through 
mourning-veils, and from sorrow's pathway, and 
from the couch of sickness, and from the grave 
of the loved, and say, with a holy confidence, 
" He doeth all things well." 

God pities us. He does not mete out to us 
these sorrows wiUingly, but for our good. "As 



230 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear him." 

"Amid my list of blessings infinite, 
Stand this the foremost, that my heart has bled." 

God pities our weakness, and proffers us grace. 
Jesus, the loving Savior, knows what sore temp- 
tations mean ; for he has felt them. He pities 
our ignorance, and says, "I will give thee light." 
He knows our frailty. " He remembereth that 
we are dust." 

"A fly, a hair, a grape-stone, may kill." 

He made us of the dust of the ground. Do 
you pity your own child, love it fondly, caress 
it } God loves you more. That human love of 
yours would be a poor measure of his infinite 
love for us all. 

Suffering brings us into sympathy, not only 
with Christ, but with each other. We are mem- 
bers of a suffering family. However dissimilar 
our tastes, our habits, our education, or the 
sphere of society in which we may chance to 
move, we come together at this point. Let a 
great sorrow fall on us, and how soon we learn 
that there are hearts that beat with sympathy 
for us ! We then see the better side of life, the 
spontaneous outburst of genuine affection, even 
from those whom we scarcely knew before ; and 
this makes us love our race a little better than 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 23 1 

we did. So that human sorrow binds the world 
into a great brotherhood. 

It is God's pity — God waking up the hearts 
of those around us, to go and represent him ; 
humanity showing its true self. For however cold 
the world around us may seem to be, there is, 
after all, a great world-heart that, under the cloak 
of fashion or business, still throbs in the breasts 
of men and women, and only needs an occasion, 
when, lo ! the mantle is cast off, the office is 
closed, the gay laugh is hushed, and there it is, a 
great throbbing heart of sympathy and love, 
coming to us with the kindliest offices. 

** There is One 
To whom sad hearts have often gone. 
Though rich the gifts for which they pray, 
None ever came unblest away. 
Then, though all earthly ties be riven, 
Smile, for thou hast a friend in heaven." 

*«• 

Faith, not sight, is our anchor in the storm. 
" Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why 
art thou disquieted within me.-* Hope thou in 
God : for I shall yet praise him who is the health 
of my countenance, and my God." 

All these sufferings point to the future. All 
our griefs, sorrows, bereavements, trials, and 
temptations are indices of heaven. They will 
not go with us to heaven ; no pain or grief shall 
enter there ; but, like the guide-board by the 



232 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

road-side, they only tell us which way to take. 
To murmur at them, to receive them in any other 
spirit than that in which they are given, is only 
to leave God's path, and wander off into the mazes 
of sin — into the wilderness of confusion, doubt, 
and despair. 

Heaven is the explanation of earth, it is the 
key which unlocks the mystery of all our sorrows, 
it is the recompense of all our griefs ; and its 
eternal bliss shall pay for all God's children suf- 
fer here. " Now we see through a glass darkly ; 
but then, face to face. Now we know in part ; 
but then shall we know, even as also we are 
known." 

Heaven will solve many a dark problem that 
has troubled our minds here. It will show us 
what we can never learn here, and satisfy all our 
demands when we reach it. We must have faith 
in God, and live and endure till he says, " Come 
up higher." Do your work well ; and when the 
frail bark of your life goes down, go with it to 
the bottom as God shall will, with the heart an- 
chored to the Throne by the strong faith of the 
Gospel, and it shall be well with you. Go to 
your life-work with zeal, prosecute it with en- 
ergy, and meet death when it comes — or griefs 
and sorrows when they come — with courage, 
with faith. 



DISCIPLINE OF SORROW. 233 

A beautiful illustration of manly courage, of 
Christian resignation and self-sacrifice, was that 
of the lamented Herndon, commander of the 
steamship Central America, a few years ago. 
That noble vessel left Aspinwall for the port of 
New York, with five hundred and seventy-five 
persons on board, including the. crew. When 
some days out, the ship sprung a leak, and all 
efforts to save her from sinking proved unavailmg. 
The sea was heavy, the ship was crippled, every 
arm had worked at the pumps ; and all this could 
not bring the vessel to land. Just then, a small 
craft hove in sight. Signal -rockets went up every 
half-hour, while the minute-guns sent their boom- 
ings of distress across the waters. The small 
vessel came to their aid, as nearly as possible. 
Then the boats were lowered ; and first the women 
and children were taken off, and then the old 
men, until the small vessel could positively con- 
tain no more, and it became inevitable that many 
must go down with the ship. The captain de- 
cided to perish with his crew. He went into his 
state-room,. put on his naval uniform, removed the 
covering from the gold band of his cap, took his 
stand at the wheel-house, grasped the iron raiUng 
with his left hand, uncovered his head in solemn 
reverence before God, and thus went into eternity. 
Here was grandeur of moral character ; here was 



234 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

worth before which the world may pause. Such 
an end is ennobUng — it is inspiring. And such 
a close is but the concentration of a long life full 
of noble deeds into a few hours. 

Life is not always to be measured by years, but 
by deeds. And it is often true that in death we 
only give emphasis to life. Death brings out its 
meaning. Death rounds our lives to a close, and 
is but the fragrance of cemented and compacted 
virtues. In death, we may do a thousand times 
more for God, and for his cause, than we could do 
in a long life. And so of all the ills that afflict 
us, there are times of sorrow, when true Christian 
grace can best be exhibited to the gaze of man. 
We must go on trusting in God, and life will be, 
at least, sweet in the consciousness of right. 
The cloud will be fringed with gold, and in the 
deep voice of the tempest that may toss your 
bark, will come the voice of Jesus, saying, " It is 
I ; be not afraid." Let us believe that 

"Sin can give no wound 
Beyond love's power to heal." 



CHAPTER XII. 

" By scale and method works the Will Stipretney 
Nor clouds nor waves without a limit stream. ; 
And all the floods that daylight ever saw^ 
The ray less tide of ruin ozvns a law.'''' 




LOSELY allied to the subject of human 
affliction, is that of accidents. 

We were riding along, on a lovely 
morning — drinking in the sweet air, feasting our 
eyes on the beauties of nature, and enjoying our- 
selves in the highest degree, quite forgetful of 
the great world around us — when suddenly we 
espied a group of men gathered closely together 
in front of a farm-cottage, evidently very much 
excited. 

Every one knows how contagious an excite- 
ment is. The posture of the men, the hurry and 
bustle, told us plainly an accident had happened. 

We touched Dick with the whip, and were soon 

235 



236 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

on the ground. There lay a young man, terribly 
mangled ; untrained hands were vainly endeavor- 
ing to stanch the flow of blood. We joined the 
group, and went to work ; and, by carefully band- 
aging the lacerated limb, applying cold water, 
getting the patient into the easiest possible po- 
sition, we succeeded in stopping the hemorrhage 
until the arrival of the surgeon. 

The young man had been driving a mowing- 
machine. The horses became restive; he had 
applied a whip ; the machine had struck a stump ; 
he had fallen before the knives, and was wounded 
in a score of places, — so that, to save his life, one 
would have supposed a miracle necessary. Yet, 
strange to say, he did recover in a few weeks, 
with just one leg less than when, on that beau- 
tiful morning, he took his place on the mowing- 
machine. 

We could not help thinking how suddenly we 
were projected into a new world. In a moment, 
we were out of a realm of pleasure, sunshine, and 
joy, into one of the very reverse. A brother's 
cry of distress had fallen on the ear; and away 
we hurried, to bind up wounds, and comfort one 
in agony. 

And such is life. One-half of the world is 
quite forgetful of the other half There is a 
wedding-party in one house, while a funeral 



ACCIDENTS. 237 

cortege passes from the door of the house ad- 
joining. Here they are singing and making 
merry, and just across the way they are watching 
by the bedside of the sick and dying. Plenty 
crowns the board in one house, while want 
pinches in another. Human life is made up of 
these extremes. 

But, then, we do not believe that, because 
there are sorrows and sickness and want and 
death in the world, there should be no cheer and 
gladness. If my neighbor is too poor to own a 
carriage, that is no reason why I should not. If 
my next-door neighbor has the gout, that is no 
reason why I should screw up m}^ face as if I 
had it too. 

The more of cheer and joy there is in the 
world, the better for the world. We should 
sympathize with those in affliction, and help 
them ; but we should not aim at hanging the 
whole world in weeds of mourning. All acci- 
dents affect, more or less closely, human life. 
We are every-where exposed to them. In this 
world, neither life nor property is anywhere safe, 
excepting in a comparative sense. 

That young man could not have foreseen the 
event which deprived him of a limb, and came • 
well-nigh taking his life. We can all see, after 
an accident has happened, how it might have 



238 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

been averted. But, then, we are not gifted with 
foresight. 

Who could have foreseen the destruction of 
the great city of Chicago by fire, in a few hours ? — 
a city with nearly a quarter of a million of inhab- 
itants ; a city of no secondary magnitude, one 
whose interests were interlaced with those of a 
whole nation ; a city into which a score and 
a half of railroads poured the wealth of a 
continent! 

That such a city should take fire, and burn up 
its chief part, is indeed an event which we can 
now believe possible only because we have seen 
the devastating work of the flames. Had it been 
said by any man, before the occurrence of this 
dire calamity, that such might be the case, it 
would only have excited derision. 

The city of Chicago did not burn because of 
the temporary manner in which it was con- 
structed. The fire raged most fiercely through 
the best-built portion. Who has not seen those 
massive blocks of masonry in the neighborhood 
of the court-house ? These buildings were con- 
structed with reference to the possible danger of 
fire. All the precautions were taken to guard 
against any such calamity. And yet we see them 
melt away before the encroaching flames, like 
houses of wax or paper. Brick, stone, and iron 



ACCIDENTS. 239 

had no power to resist the fire-storm of that 
fatal night. 

Men generally protect themselves by precau-, 
tionary measures against possible loss, by placing 
guards over their property. The dull tread of 
the watchman, through the long and dreary 
night, tells us that there is a foe to be dreaded, 
a danger to be feared. This every man feels, as 
certainly as he feels the air around him. 

Against the intruding burglar, he places the 
strongest bolts and bars, the most complex com- 
bination-locks ; and then keeps his light burn- 
ing, so that every motion may be seen by the 
sentinels who keep watch over the coffers of 
the rich. 

Against the devouring flames, the enterprising 
merchant or property-owner places the guard of 
insurance. He spends willingly a large sum of 
money, that, in any event, he shall not lose his 
property. 

To protect the city, the most complete fire- 
department is organized. Steam is invoked as a 
motive-power, to throw the stream farther than 
could be done by the human arm. The vast 
lake is made to contribute its waters in the time' 
of danger. Indeed, what precautions could have 
been used, which were not, by the intelligent men 
of the stricken city ? 



240 THE BLAGK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

And yet, in spite of all the devices of art and 
skill of science, the city has been laid waste. 
The steam-engine had not power enough to 
drown the raging flames with its flood of water ; 
the lake, on whose banks the fire raged with 
remorseless fury, could not quench them with its 
flow of waters. 

Bolts, bars, and combination-locks were of no 
avail now ; for fire can penetrate where the hand 
can not reach, nor the eye see. The faithful 
patrolman could not ward off the attacks of the 
fire-fiend, when once he determined to consume 
the works and wealth of man. 

Blocks of stone and iron are no barrier to his 
progress. The monster walks over them ; crushes 
them under his feet; blows his breath of flame 
through thick walls ; and lays in ruins, in a few 
hours, what the active hand and heated brain 
have brought into being through years of time, 
toil, and patience. 

And that reliance on the power of insurance 
proves too weak in such a calamity ; for, the 
prop on which insurance itself leaned for support 
once gone, that, too, falls to the ground, and 
there is the end. 

To every plan and purpose of man, there is a 
contingency — a possibility of failure, founded in 
the very constitution of things. 



ACCIDENTS. 241 

We see no particular necessity now for holding 
a court of inquiry to ascertain where the fire began, 
and how; or what the course of its deadly path. 
Here is a great fact which stares us in the face — 
a fact that, in the face of all the efforts of intel- 
ligent-government and the laws of self-protection, 
over-riding every wall of safety, the flames have 
triumphed ; and a city, on which the world had 
looked with feelings of commingled wonder and 
pride, is converted into a huge heap of smolder- 
ing ruins. 

And now this* whole question of accidents 
comes properly before us. 

There is a railway collision, and many lives 
are lost ; or a steamboat explosion, when scores 
are sent into eternity in a moment; or a building 
falls, and many are buried in the ruins. Then 
there come the public indignation and censure 
of all concerned. Perhaps justly ; for there is a 
recklessness in the management of boats and 
cars, often, which merits rebuke. 

But, then, should we not know that these 
calamities always have occurred, and always will ? 

Man is not perfect in his works. He can not 
build a perfect building, nor construct a perfect 
machine of any kind. You may take a compass 
of the most delicate structure, and yet you can 
not describe a perfect circle ; your hand is not 
16 



242 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

perfect. The instrument itself is not perfect ; for 
man made it. 

There is here a great truth which impresses 
us ; namely, that there is in us, and in all our 
works, this element of frailty — imperfection. The 
laws of nature are perfect; the instincts of the 
animal world operate with certainty — animals 
make no mistakes ; but when you come to man, 
the being of reason, then you find a being of 
error in judgment and sinfulness of heart. Let 
him be as careful as he will over all his actions, 
yet he will find himself where he will say: "If I 
had done this, or left undone that, this would not 
have happened." 

Then, there is in the very constitution of 
things an element of weakness. The very rocks 
are temporary: they crumble under the hand of 
time. The granite or iron shaft will fall ; the most 
gigantic engine has its weak part, which, under 
some pressure, will give way. The steamer may 
go safely on many a voyage over the stormy sea, 
triumphing over wind and wave ; but, in the end, 
sinks to the bottom, or falls a prey to the con- 
suming flames. 

The railway may be managed with consum- 
mate skill ; every part may be guarded, and every 
wheel be carefully inspected ; and yet the undis- 
coverable flaw in the iron, which may indeed lie 



ACCIDENTS. 243 

beyond the ken of mortals, will give way, and the 
crash will come. 

Men are not gods. The watchman may be 
overcome with sleep ; for even the army-sentinel, 
on picket-duty, has fallen asleep, when death was 
the penalty of his fault. 

The human mind is forgetful ; some point in 
the time-table is unnoticed. The watch on which 
the engineer depends was made by man, and is 
imperfect ; the failure of some little wheel is the 
cause of a terrible railroad disaster. 

The human judgment is weak; and often, 
when man would be true to himself and to 
others, he makes mistakes, and ruin comes on 
others, disasters ensue, which shroud whole com- 
munities in gloom. We are bound to protect 
life and limb ; but we must be merciful in our 
judgments of men. The patient may die, though 
the best medical skill be employed. The disaster 
will corne on life and property, do what we will. 

If left to us, none would die ; for we always 
seek to prolong life. And, when our friends die, 
we say, if we had used this remedy, or that, they 
might have lived. No machines would break, if 
we had our way. No accidents would occur, if 
we could prevent them. 

Ah, this human frailty, this innate imperfec- 
tion in man, which shows itself in all his words 



244 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

and in all his actions, — we can not think of it 
without a deep feeling of humility! This frailty 
and death are implied in the text, " Dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return." God 
means to execute the law of mortality in this 
world. The man of health and strength often 
falls to the ground in a moment, without any as- 
signable cause. Infancy and age alike perish 
from the earth. The pestilence walks with deadly 
tread among the children of men, sparing none. 
The earth is made to quake by some invisible 
power, and cities are toppled into ruins, and life 
and property are wasted with lavish hand. The 
rains descend from the heavens, and floods are 
created which sweep away the abodes of men 
with all they hold dear. 

The spark kindles the flame in the forest or 
city, which sweeps on in its course, destroying 
man and his works without pity. 

O, this world is full of frailty, full of vanity ! 
" Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, saith the 
preacher !" 

Build as strong as you will, be as careful as 
you may ; and yet, with humanity as it is, and 
with material things as they are, it can be said 
truly, "There is nothing sure but heaven." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

** The swelling of an oiitward fortune can 
Create a prosperotcs, not a happy man ; 
A peaceful conscietice is the true content. 
And wealth is but its goldeji ornament.''^ 




|HE Black Horse and Carryall go to very- 
many funerals. It is a positive benefit 
to a Church for the pastor to own a 
vehicle of some kind. They who make provision 
for a minister's expenses should take this into 
the account. In every large society there are 
many funerals every year. Funerals are expen- 
sive. It costs a good deal to die and be decently 
buried in these times. It is grateful to the ten- 
der feelings of the bereaved to see a fair repre- 
sentation on these sad occasions. Sometimes 
vanity here finds its expression, too, when 
empty carriages, tightly closed, go slowly along, 
as if filled with mourners. Ah, that is a mere 
mockery ! 

245 



246 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

One of the saddest funerals to which we ever 
drove " Dick," was that of C. J. He was of good 
family. Father, mother, and two sisters he had 
to love him. At sixteen, he was a Church mem- 
ber. He wandered away from Church and Sab- 
bath-school, formed bad habits, and, sad to relate, 
entered a saloon one evening, drank to intoxica- 
tion, fell into an angry altercation with his 
companions, was thrown out of the door against 
a stone wall, and killed almost instantly. As he 
lay in his coffin, still in death, with such a manly 

look for he was so handsome, and his poor 

mother and sisters sobbed as if their hearts 
would break— if ever we resolved to lift our voice 
to the young men, it was then. 

A young man rode with us to the cemetery on 
that occasion, a companion of C. J., to whom we 
talked kindly. With what effect, time, possibly 
eternity, alone can tell. We amplify our sug- 
gestions to that young man, and hope, through 
these pages, to reach others, and do them good. 
There came to the Savior, on one occasion, a 
young man whose heart was evidently burdened 
with a question of deepest interest. He desired 
a place in the "kingdom of heaven." He craved 
for " eternal life," and was willing to do some 
*'good tbing" in order to obtain it. The Savior 
knew well his heart, and saw that it would not 



HEART LIFE. 247 

be possible for him to be his disciple, and yet 
cling so fondly to the world. So he gave him 
advice to go and sell all he had, give alms to 
the poor, and then come and follow him. 

This young man was rich ; yet his riches could 
not give him true contentment. "He went away 
sorrowful ;" rich, but sad. He was of high social 
rank, a noble young man, whose companion- 
ships could be of his own choosing ; yet he was 
troubled in heart. " He went away sorrowful ;" 
the best society, but sad. He was intelligent, 
cultivated. But, then, that which satisfies the 
mind does not give peace to the heart. *' He 
went away sorrowful ;" intelligent, but sad. He 
was moral, he had been an observer of the law, 
and had kept the precepts of religion from his 
'' youth up." '' He went away sorrowful ;" moral, 
but still sad. Rich, high social rank, intelligent, 
young in life, moral ; but still with a worm gnaw- 
ing at the heart, a void in the soul. 

This, then, clearly shows us that there is a 
life possible to us which is in some way attain- 
able — -attainable by a specific course of action on 
our part. To some reflections on this, we invite 
your thoughts in this chapter. 

There are some young men whom we meet in 
the daily walks of life, who are, indeed, models 
of moral excellence. Their disposition is ami- 



248 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

able ; their character seems rounded into beauti- 
ful, symmetrical proportion. They stand before 
the world the embodiment of all that is admi- 
rable and lovable in human life. We look to them 
as the pillars of the social fabric. They are, by 
common consent, awarded the place of honor in 
society. They constitute the heroic band who 
shall defend the world's honor and virtue against 
the attacks of its war-clad enemies, as the im- 
mortal band of Spartans guarded the pass of 
Thermopylae against the legions of Persia. A 
young man of probity, of unselfishness, of real 
heart-goodness, is worth something to the soci- 
ety in which he moves, as well as to the world 
at large. 

There are other young men, who are the oppo- 
site of these. They are selfish, aimless in life, 
mere excrescences on the body of society, in 
whom mankind have no confidence, and whose 
existence inspires no hope in any human breast. 

So it is : some stand proudly on the eminence 
of virtuous manhood ; others are sunken into the 
most degraded bestiality. Some have the power 
to attract all with whom they come in contact ; 
others repel by their unloveliness, their want of 
the qualities that win. These are differences 
which have come under the observation of all. 
It is no uncommon remark one hears dropped 



HEART LIFE. 249 

from the lips of observing people, " There goes a 
model young man ;" or, " There goes a young man 
who is a perfect wreck." 

The question is not what any young man once 
may have been, but what he is now. Five years 
ago, he may have been the chained victim of 
passion. Three years ago, he may have been the 
most unpromising young man in the community. 
But the past is gone. He may have turned 
squarely about, his haunts have been abandoned, 
his old habits have been broken off; and this hour 
he walks erect, with a determined will, and is 
worthy of universal confidence. 

Now, we would say to the young man, that 
heart has much to^o in making or unmaking you. 

By heart, we do not mean the muscular viscus 
which propels the blood through the body ; but 
we use the term in a poetic or figurative sense. 
The word applies to the inner part of any thing ; 
it means the chief part of any thing. In man, 
it relates to the seat of his affections, the fountain 
of love or enmity, of grief or pleasure. 

"All our actions take^ 
Their huea from the complexion of the heart, 
As landscapes their variety from the light." 

Heart, then, makes us or unmakes us. The 
heart right, the life will be. " Out of the heart 
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni- 



250 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

cations, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies : these 
are the things which defile a man." 

The heart may be hardened in sin, or softened 
by Divine grace. In short, a man's life is to be 
measured, valued for good in this world, not so 
much by what he knows, as by what he is in 
moral goodness. 

All reformation of character must begin at the 
heart ; it is the center of being, the spring of our 
motions. You must love to do right, not because 
men will think better of you simply, but because 
right is right. There must be heart in what you 
do ; you must do right because you feel like doing 
right. Honesty is not the best of policy, but it 
is the best of principle. 

The upbuilding of your life must be on the 
heart-basis. Who loves or admires a cold and 
heartless man } An iceberg may glitter and shim- 
mer in the sun, and be grandly beautiful ; but, 
then, its presence chills us. 

The difference between the cold and heartless 
man and the true, genial man, is the difference 
between the lofty peak of a mountain that 
touches the clouds, snow-clad, and the valley, 
warm with sunshine and fragrant with flowers, 
at its base. 

The power to reform a wayward life, every 
young man possesses. Men may grow old in sin, 



HEART LIFE. 25 I 

their habits become fixed in their very con- 
stitutions, so that they can not change; but 
there is not a young man anywhere who may 
not stop his vices, and become a new man, if he 
so will. 

The will-power in man is planted there to be 
supreme. Here is the seat of your real power : 
to be able to say, when the tempter comes to lure 
you away into wrong, " I will not ;" to say " No," 
when it should be said. Many a young rhan 
could face the storm of battle with a dauntless 
courage, who yet might not seem able to say 
" No " to a boon companion when asked to enter 
a drinking-saloon. And why .? Because the will 
has not been properly used. Any power you 
possess will decay if it is not employed. 

What is the estimate we place on that young 
man's moral manhood, who will stand up and say 
he has no power to withstand temptation — who 
ever pleads his weakness when urged to do right } 
To the young man of will, every avenue of good- 
ness and greatness is open. And if they were not, 
then he should be like the old Roman who said, 
if there was no way for him, he would make one 
with his sword. Fortune and fame are yours, if 
you will have them. 

Let us point you to habit, as a power for good 
or evil in every human life. Habit is simply tend- 



252 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

ency, strengthened by practice. But Low pow- 
erful it becomes ! Tlie habit of fingering a button 
on his coat was so strong with an eminent lawyer, 
that, in a great suit, he lost his case because his 
opponent stealthily cut off the button before he 
rose to make his plea ; its loss disconcerted him, 
and failure was the result. Most of the vices to 
which men are addicted, are vices of habit. Why 
do you smoke, swear, play billiards, sit around 
the store to the great annoyance of clerks and 
customers.-* Because you have got into the habit 
of doing it. 

Now, the will-power should be stronger than 
mere habit. No man is truly manly who can not 
break off a bad habit by the force of his will. It 
was said of the first Alexander, Emperor of Rus- 
sia, that his personal character was equal to a 
constitution. During the wars of the Fronde, 
Montaigne was the only one of the French gentry 
who could keep his castle-gates unbarred. His 
personal character was worth more than a regi- 
ment of horse. This was character ; and in these 
men it meant strength. True character, however, 
in a Christian sense, is something more than 
strength ; it is a combination of strength and 
goodness — will-power and heart-power. When 
Stephen of Colonna fell into the hands of his as- 
sassins, and they asked him, "Where now is your 



HEART LIFE. 253 

fortress ?" laying his hand upon his heart, he said, 
*' In here !" 

Money is power, as we all know ; for men are 
drawn by it as the moth is drawn to the flame. 
Knowledge is power, and gives its possessor a 
kind of kingly supremacy. Fame is power ; for 
in all ages men have been hero-worshipers. But 
over all these, over wealth with its glitter and 
show, above even knowledge and fame, rises 
that strange weight which some men carry within 
them — a blending of strength and goodness, moral 
integrity, life-purpose, adherence to a settled 
principle ; a strange something which can not be 
counterfeited, which can not be felt or seen un- 
less it exists, and, where it does exist, makes its 
possessor godlike. 

But is character inherent in us } or may it be 
acquired ? We answer, it is both. It is a fact 
that all men are not equally gifted. God has 
not cast all minds in the same mold. A less 
degree of talent should never be a disparagement 
to any man. Be yourself in every sense ; but 
strive to make the most of yourself A man 
with five talents can be as good, as courageous, 
as stable, as he who possesses ten. A small tal- 
ent, well employed, is better than great ones 
wasted. Inasmuch, then, as character, in the 
high sense, owes its value and power to good- 



254 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

ness, we may hold that it is acquirable. There 
is enough in every man to astonish the world ; 
for so few of us reach the maximum of real good- 
ness, and, by consequence, real greatness. 

We come, now, to inquire into the source of 
true greatness in life. What is it } We answer, 
the perfection of the moral and intellectual na- 
ture in man. In other words, the religion of 
the Bible. 

Religion, in the sense of conversion, the cre- 
ation of a "new heart," is not an effete dogma, 
which you have outlived, which belongs only to 
the past ages. We are not forgetful that we 
live in an age of very decided skepticism, and 
we know full well that it weakens any young 
man's hold on society in its better form, to pro- 
claim himself a skeptic. It is fashionable, now- 
adays, to be " free-thinkers." And men, both 
young and old, who have scarcely traveled be- 
yond the limits of their native state, who have 
never read much of history, philosophy, or the- 
ology, set themselves up as critics of religion — 
denounce as false what they have not read, and 
what they have scarcely the power to understand, 
if they did read. 

Do you know that the ablest men of all the 
lands are firm believers in the truthfulness of 
the Bible ? 



HEART LIFE. 255 

Do you know that the battle between religion 
and irreligion, between evangelical Christianity 
and infidelity, was fought by David Hume, Vol- 
taire, Rousseau, Gibbon, and their confederates, 
against the champions of the Christian faith, and 
that they were defeated ? 

These men were giants ; but they fell before 
the Davids of God's army. These men wrote 
on their altars, " There is no God ;" on the door- 
way to their cemeteries, " Death is an eternal 
sleep." But is this the faith of the world now ? 

Do you know that the printing-press of Vol- 
taire, which he used for the overthrow of the 
Christian religion, was used shortly after his death 
for printing Bibles } Do you know that Voltaire 
himself sent for a priest, to whom to make his 
confession of sin before he died ? And have you 
learned that Hume's house, at Edinburgh, was 
used for a Bible depository ? and that, by a 
strange coincidence. Gibbon's house, at Lau- 
sanne, was used for the same purpose ? 

There is no argument in these simple facts, 
we admit. But in them, still, we may discover 
the weakness of their cause, and a prophecy of 
the fate of all unbelief 

Experimental godliness is a verity. Turn away 
from the teachings of the Savior as you may ; 
mock at Christianity, as many do ; boast proudly, 



2^6 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

as men always have done, over your own self- 
sufficiency, and your reliance on reason ; but we 
assure you that you do it at your peril. You 
have brains to cultivate, and hands with which 
to toil; but you have hearts as well. The woe 
of sin you feel ; its bitterness you have experi- 
enced. Of these things you are as conscious as 
that you live in God's beautiful world. There is 
a subtile poison streaming forth in the writings 
of many modern book-makers, which is seeking 
to undermine the foundations of belief. There 
is a rebellion against God in the human mind. 
All see its effects, all have felt its power. 

But how many there are who call in question 
this heart-religion ! Ask them why they disbe- 
lieve it, and they can not tell you. They plead 
mystery ; but there is mystery in every thing. 
They bring forth the old plea of superstition, and 
charge upon those who profess to have "passed 
from death unto life," that they have been de- 
luded. Then how will we dispose of the testimo- 
nies of men who have stood up, in their strength, 
in the maturity of their years, to declare the fact 
that they have passed through this change in 
answer to prayer ? 

On the common law of testimony admitted in 
all our courts, on which the interests of life and 
property depend, and which all men accept, we 



HEART LIFE. 257 

base the claims of the religion of Jesus. And 
as the great Teacher said to the doubting Nico- 
demus, we say to you, " Marvel not ;" " Ye must 
be born again." 

Now, what will heart-religion do for the young 
man ? What will it do for any man ? 

Piety must be considered in a twofold aspect : 
First, its relation to our future state ; secondly, 
its influence on this life. The promise to the 
child of God is, that he shall have the "life that 
now is," and also "that which is to come." 

The mistake which too many make is, that 
they regard piety as something useful to die 
by — as a kind of insurance policy, payable at 
death — and not as an investment bringing in 
something all of the time. 

Heaven is a good place, and we all desire to 
go there ; but we must not be too much in haste. 
We have a work to do in this life, for ourselves 
as well as for others. It does not sound well 
for Christians always to be talking about dying, 
as if that was all they had to do. Talk some 
about living right; for if we live right, death 
will have no sting, and heaven will be gained all 
safely. 

We see the young man stepping forth upon 
the world's active stage ; and, surely, it is a stage. 
The crowd of the world is around him, cheering 
17 



258 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

him on in the r61e he proposes to take. The 
scenes are attractive, the pla}^ bewitching. There 
is a prize to win, something to be gained or 
made. The world says, " He that does not ven- 
ture, will not win." In this fast age, in these 
skeptical times, with all the moral forces acting 
upon him, do you ask us what one thing will 
most insure his fame, and most conduce to his 
welfare ? We are ready to say, genuine heart- 
culture ; the religion of Jesus, as taught in the 
Bible. 

This will preserve the conscience, and secure 
his own self-respect. And what is a man, with- 
out this element ? One whose soul recoils upon 
himself, whose transgressed conscience lifts up 
her voice by day and by night in the breast, can 
not walk the earth as man should. We do not 
say that there is no conscience where there is 
no religion, but we do say that the possession of 
true religion will ever keep the conscience clear. 

There is a good deal of meaning in the old 
maxim, " Better be right than be king." 

No man's joys of the world are made any less 
by being a Christian. Godliness forbids no law- 
ful pleasure. Discipleship in the Church of 
Christ is not a crown of thorns ; nor does it 
lead necessarily to the martyr's stake, or the 
gloom of the dungeon. 



HEART LIFE. 259 

The highest joys of the soul are not those of 
the moment's gratification of sense; not the 
whirl of the dance, nor the excitement of the 
play ; not the satisfaction of the glutton, nor the 
satiety of the drinking-saloon, nor the enticements 
of the gambling-house. 

There is, in the soul of every being created in 
the image of God, an instinctive craving after a 
higher life ; an upturning toward that which is 
spiritual ; an effort of the mind to grasp the 
invisible, and seek it as a permanent good. 

You may be noble in your aspirations, you 
may be true to your neighbor, you may be moral 
to the last degree ; but, unless you ascend up 
higher on the ladder of true development, there 
will always be a dread void in your soul — a 
something, you may not know what. But you 
will feel what the poet has expressed : 

" The world can never give 
The bliss for which we sigh." 

• No man is true to himself who does not seek 
after this heart life. It will come in as a shield 
in the hour of danger. When poisoned arrows 
fill the air about you, it will be around you a 
coat-of-mail. When adversities flow in upon you, 
and you see your property swept away, you can 
put your hand upon your heart, and say, " I am 
rich still." When friends fail, and drop into the 



26o THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

grave, where all of us shall lie, it will inspire you 
with hopes immortal for the world to come. And 
when you lie down upon the couch of the dying, 
as you must, it will afford the hope which your 
soul will crave. 

Young men, rise to the grandeur of the 
thought ; and let it inspire you. Time is too 
precious to squander in any pursuit less dignified 
than the soul which stirs within you. The tal- 
ents which God has placed within your breast are 
gems too costly to be unused — too beautiful to be 
buried forever. 

The arena on which this hour you stand, by 
the appointment of God, offers a field replete 
with the grandest opportunities to every true 
man. Your possible development of mind, soul, 
heart life, should be the first thought daily. The 
ship which comes to you is freighted to the 
water's edge with golden opportunities. Be up 
and doing, for God and humanity. 

The world has various modes of measuring 
men. Some will value you according to the 
acres and dollars you own. Some will gauge 
your dimensions by the social position you hold 
in life ; and others will applaud only where they 
see display. But in the Eye where darkness 
never comes ; before Him in whose hands are 
balances which move only at the touch of worth ; 



HEART LIFE. 26 1 

at the bar where right shall ever stand un- 
shaken, — there true manhood, unsullied character, 
human worth, shall stand proudly erect, like the 
mountain summit piercing the clouds. 

On the walls of a famous city, once paced back 
and forth a Roman sentinel, with helmet and 
shield and glittering spear. In the deep dark- 
ness of the night, a volcano burst forth ; and on 
the city, in its slumbers, poured its torrents of 
fire and death, inhuming in deep oblivion the 
city and the watchful sentinel upon the walls. 

Centuries passed, in their slow procession ; and 
the antiquarian sought, amid the debris of the 
ruined city, the relics of her former greatness. 
Gold and silver and precious stones were gath- 
ered, to spangle in court-dress and add luster to 
crowns ; sculptures, to adorn the palaces of the 
rich, and increase the attractions of galleries of 
art. But that which was most precious among 
all the wonders exhumed from out the buried 
city, was the charred form of the faithful senti- 
nel, clasping bravely, even in death, his spear. 
What a lesson of integrity in that " skeleton in 
armor !" 

Ay : the world will, after all, admire the true 
man, the man of heart, of worth, of richness and 
beauty of character. When the tinselry and 
show of life are forgotten, when its riches and 



262 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

its fame have all vanished, that of which you 
may think least to-day, will be of greatest value. 
The shadow will pass, the substance endure. 
The body will crumble to dust; the spirit will 
live on, through the eternal years of God. 

" The sun is but a spark of fire, 
A transient meteor in the sky; 
The soul, immortal as its Sire, 
Shall never die !" 






K^ 


h^M 


^"^ 


h'^M 


^?V^' 







CHAPTER XIV. 

" Man is a pilgrim spirit clothed in fleshy 
And tented in the wilderness of time ; 
His native place is near the eternal Throne^ 
And his creator^ God.'''' 

DUCATION and Religion are twin sis- 
ters. The culture of the heart comes 
first in order, and is of the first impor- 
tance. If either kind of culture is to be omitted, 
it would be better to omit brain-culture. If a 
man is virtuous — if he can be trusted by all — his 
ignorance can be borne with, he can be respected ; 
while a man may be brain-wise, but immoral, not 
possessing the confidence of any one. 

Culture of the brain does not necessarily im- 
ply that of the heart ; but all true heart-culture 
does imply the culture of the brain. Christian- 
ity is not a foster-mother of ignorance ; but, in 
every age and in every land, has shown herself 

263 



264 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

to be the promoter of knowledge, as well as of 
virtue. 

We have urged upon you, in the preceding 
chapters, the duty of heart-culture ; the necessity 
of a religious life, as the best way of securing 
your greatest happiness and best manhood. We 
claim, then, as a second duty, binding upon all 
young men in this age, that of education — brain- 
culture. 

The author of the Book of Proverbs has spoken 
to you : " That the soul be without knowledge, it 
is not good." Again : *' Get wisdom, and with all 
thy getting, get understanding." " Wisdom is the 
principal thing, therefore get wisdom." We could 
cite many others, equally to the point, 

You will all agree with us in the remark, that 
the mind is formed for growth. You have ob- 
served its unfoldings, in yourselves and in others. 
How feeble is the infant mind ! How gradually 
we come into the possession of knowledge ! How 
slow is the process of education! 

With regard to the origin of our knowledge, 
there are two theories. One is called the "sen- 
sational," because its advocates claim that all our 
knowledge is derived through the senses ; that 
our ideas come in through the eyes, ears, taste, 
smell, and touch. 

This theory is in part true ; we do thus obtain 



THINKING AND GROWING. 265 

much of our knowledge. This is the source 
from which we derive our first practical knowl- 
edge; as of distance, height, roundness, smooth- 
ness, cold, heat, form, color, and the qualities of 
bodies generally. 

The other theory maintains that the mind has 
certain knowledge by virtue of its own action ; 
that it has intuitions, primary judgments. 

The truth does not lie in either of these theo- 
ries to the exclusion of the other. Knowledge is 
gained through the senses ; and then, in addition 
thereto, there are some kinds of knowledge which 
we gain by the powers of intuition, or primitive 
judgments. But the mind has an expansive power ; 
to unfold is as much its law as the opening of 
Spring flowers is a law of vegetation. We all 
should know more than we do. If we were careful 
to gain some good and useful knowledge each 
day, how vast would be the extent of our acquire- 
ments when age comes upon us ! and come it will. 

Then consider, too, how all the universe in- 
vites our study. God has hid the secrets of na- 
ture beneath a veil ; so that he who would be wise 
must reach forth his hand and lift the covering. 
He who would be rich in the treasures of knowl- 
edge, must not be afraid to inquire at the shrine 
where the goddess of wisdom presides. They 
learn most who are willing to confess their igno- 



266 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

ranee ; while those who know every thing, can, of 
course, learn nothing. If, therefore, you would 
be truly wise, be always learning something, al- 
ways admit the possibility of your own improve- 
ment. " Be not wise in your own conceits." 
Every man knows more about some things than 
other men. The philosopher, or man of science, 
can learn from the humblest mechanic or day- 
laborer; who, in turn, must learn many things 
from the philosopher. Two things, then, let us 
ever bear in mind : we can gain knowledge, sub- 
stantial and useful, from those about us whom we 
may regard as our inferiors ; and, secondly, that 
knowledge is valuable, no matter where we obtain 
it, or how we obtain it. 

Man is the only being on the face of the earth 
which is capable of improvement. Birds and 
animals may be trained to perform very strange, 
actions, but they are not possessed of reason ; 
nor do they grow up into any improved condition 
of intelligent life. Education is not a cramming 
process. We should not send our children to 
school to be filled with knowledge, as bottles are 
sent to the apothecary-shop to be filled with some 
kinds of drugs, corked up, and labeled this or 
that. Education means to draw out ; it means 
mental drill, mind-furnishing, acquired power to 
do brain-work. 



THINKING AND GROWING. 26/ 

You will please note this fact, that the great 
power which is moving the world is brain-power. 
We see the wheels of industry revolving ; we 
hear the hum of machinery ; we see the fast- 
sailing steamer upon the ocean. Go where you 
will, in country or in city, there is motion among 
the elements ; and we ask. What is the cause of 
all this } And the answer is, Mind-power ; brain 
is at work. These are its results. 

The brain is the seat of intelligence. It in- 
vestigates all substances ; it compares, weighs, 
determines the relations of things, seeks out truth, 
detects and exposes error, lays down premises, 
and draws its conclusions. 

It was thought that found the coal-vein in the 
earth and determined its use ; thought discov- 
ered the force in steam and electricity. Brain 
made the steamer and the railroad ; brain is the 
great unfolder of hidden resources. The sewing- 
machine and the magnificent reaper are daughters 
of brain ; they are brain-born : so that, back of 
all these activities which thrill society, at the 
base of all these useful inventions and improve- 
ments, is mind-power. 

It is a mystery how the mind can so act on the 
arm as to raise it, and no man is wise enough to 
tell us how it is done. If we should here declare 
it an impossible event, the arms of the reader 



268 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

would rise spontaneously to convince us of our 
error. Though we can not explain the myste- 
rious process, we yet admit the facts. 

So in the general action of brain-power on 
matter : it is a fact that mind brought together 
the iron and steel which forms the locomotive. 
You say, " Yes, but there was the toiling hand as 
well." True ; but what is toil without mind or 
brain-power.? The mind directs all the move- 
ments of the wheels in yonder factory. 

In the beginning, God said to man that he 
should have dominion over all the earth. This is 
literally true. The power of man extends to all 
things. He is master of the seas ; there are no 
oceans on which his ships do not sail. He is 
master of the land ; mountains and valleys are 
subservient to his purposes. The forces of na- 
ture are obedient to his will. And all this, be- 
cause he is gifted with that strange power which 
lifts him above all his surroundings, animate and 
inanimate — the godlike power of mind. 

Some men believe that brain secretes thought 
just as the stomach secretes the gastric juice; 
thus reducing man to a mere animal, a machine, 
a material entity. In proof of this, they bring 
forward the diseased brain, the deformed brain, 
the injured brain, to show that man's spiritual 
and mental natures are, in an absolute sense, 



THINKING AND GROWING. 269 

dependent upon his physical organization, and that, 
therefore, man is simply a material being; that 
he has no soul ; that thought is only another 
name for electricity, or heat, or some other force 
of some kind. Now, it is true that the brain is 
the seat of thought-power. Our intelligence acts 
through this material medium ; and, when the 
medium is harmed, or is diseased, it does inter- 
fere with our intelligent actions. But this does 
not prove that there can be no thought without 
brain. Thought and brain are connected in this 
life, and they act according to well-established 
laws ; but in the life to come, when the body 
shall have decayed, the mind will exist with all 
its powers unimpaired, independent of any organ- 
ization such as belongs to its growth and develop- 
ment in this life. 

There is a belief among men, that the size of 
the brain has to do with the mental ability of 
man; and we talk of measuring the thought- 
power by a tape-line, and setting down the ability 
to think, in figures, as we calculate the capacity 
of a barrel, or figure up the solid feet in a shaft 
of granite. 

Now, this is reducing intelligence to quite a 
material basis, and dragging the noble being 
made in the image of God, down to the level 
of a steam-boiler or heap of coal ! 



2/0 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

The fact is, the size of the brain alone has 
very little to do with the mind-power of any 
man. A big brain may be, just like a big arm, 
naturally soft and feeble; for no man's strength 
is determined by the diameter of his arm, but 
by its solidity and vigor. So some small brains 
are finer in texture, healthy, and more vigorous 
than some very large ones. Daniel Webster 
owed his mental power, not so much to the size 
of his brain, as to the circumstance that it was 
of good quality as well as large. Some of the 
world's great men have had small brains, while 
many of its weakest men have had large ones. 

The cultivation of the mind, we have said, is 
second only to that of the heart, and naturally 
supplements it. Here comes up a question to 
be considered. Does the mind control the heart, 
or does the heart control the mind } In other 
words, does the intellectual control the affectional, 
or the affectional the intellectual ? The best road 
to any one's inner life is through the mind. In 
the natural order, thinking goes before feeling, 
and produces it. David said, "While I mused, 
the fire burned." That is, while he reflected on 
his nature and destiny, his heart was made warm. 
He who acts simply from feeling is very likely 
to go wrong, or not go at all. A ship had bet- 
ter not move an inch than be dashed upon the 



THINKING AND GROWING. 2/1 

rocks. And, if it does move, it needs the rud- 
der. Men had better not move than to move in 
the wrong direction. And, unless the rudder of 
the intellect guides us, we shall be dashed upon 
the rocks of error. 

That which we call truth is the province of our 
intellections ; and, hence, every man, to be right, 
must think right. Hence, the Savior said, " Go, 
teach all nations." Cultivate in the minds of all 
men the love of the truth, and thus lay, in every 
case, an immovable rock on which to build 
up character. Reach the heart, and shape the 
human destiny by the training of the minds of 
all men to think correctly. 

There is, then, the universal, individual right 
to be thus cultivated. No one man, or any class 
of men, has a title, in fee simple, to all the do- 
main of knowledge. The opportunity for educa- 
tion is equal to the right to be educated. Any 
young man who desires an education can receive 
it, if he will. It is a prize held out to no priv- 
ileged rank, but a field in which the son of pov- 
erty may contend with the child of wealth. The 
young man of the shop may be the successful 
aspirant for the golden honors over the son of 
wealth. Nature is not partial in the bestowment 
of the wealth of talent. She has scattered her 
gifts like the leaves of Autumn — broadcast — and 



2/2 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

in the breast of many a poor young man she 
has put a good heart, and crowned it with a 
good head. 

Let every young man know that, while col- 
leges and universities are great helps to an am- 
bitious mind, they are, by no means, a necessity. 
All the colleges in the universe could not convert 
one of these thoughtless, frivolous young men 
into a scholar. There is no magic about a col- 
lege which can bring upon the student a strange 
spell of some kind into which he will go a dunce, 
and out of which he will come a philosopher. 
Education means study, intense application, the 
effort of the mind to overcome difficulties. It 
means persistent study by day and by night, for 
years, always. And, unless the student is in 
earnest, he will never drink sweet and refreshing 
draughts from this golden chalice. 

But what is the young man to do who is poor.'^ 
What is he to do who is so circumstanced that 
to attend school is impossible ? What is he to 
do who has a burning thirst for education, but 
whose way is hedged in on every side ? We 
answer, let the thirst burn. It will burn out 
something in that young man's life. He who 
loves books can obtain all the books he has time 
to read. Now we are going to suppose a case — 
a possible case. Yes : there are such every- 



THINKING AND GROWING. 2/3 

where. Here is a young man who has a trade 
at which he must work ten hours out of every 
twenty-four. We will suppose that young man 
to be a lover of mathematics, or of the languages, 
or any of the sciences. What are his opportuni- 
ties .'* They are numerT5tis. First, in every com- 
munity there are those who will kindly aid him 
if he will only ask them. There are men who are 
linguists and scientists — if he wishes aid in these 
departments — who will gladly aid him, often 
" without money and without price." Then, there 
are professional teachers, whose aid can be se- 
cured in any department of study. Young men 
have much time to spend in the pursuit of knowl- 
edge, if they are careful of the moments. Any 
young man can find at least two hours out of 
the twenty-four for study. Now, suppose this 
one to be at the age of twenty. If he has no 
desire for education at that age, he is not likely 
ever to have. Two hours a day, commencing 
at twenty, and continued for ten years, would 
amount to seven thousand three hundred hours, 
including Sabbaths. No student should study 
over five hours a day. 

Then, in the ten years from twenty to thirty, 
he would have studied what would be equal to 
four full years, at the rate of five hours a day ; or 
what would be equal to the time ordinarily spent 



274 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

in college. And all this can be accomplished 
when he is only thirty — all the while working at 
a trade, or doing something else. 

When we see a young man going into the 
world, to build up his fortune by hard strokes, 
beginning down at the bottom, we have hope in 
his case. Whence have come most of our rich 
men.? From the walks of poverty and toil. 
Whence have come our statesmen, mostly? 
From the farm, the shoemaker's bench, the 
blacksmith-shop. They have had nothing on 
which to rely but self, and that was the best 
foundation. These men have grown strong 
under the discipline of toil. Whence have come 
our greatest scholars } From the ranks of pov- 
erty. Many young men have "worked their 
way " through college ; and, where they could 
not go through college, they have risen above 
even colleges. They have set themselves out to 
win ; and have gained the summit of the hill of 
science, after many a hard effort. 

Young men, self-culture is possible. The road 
may be more difficult, and the journey longer ; 
but the end is as good, especially when judged 
from the stand-point of practicability. The ques- 
tion of success is one whose answer depends on 
the man himself Some men seem born for 
success ; others for failures : and this is true 



THINKING AND GROWING. 2/5 

in business, in education, in every department 
of life. 

We have spoken on possibilities ; let us also 
speak of duty. We have said you have a perfect 
right to an education. None doubt this. You 
are aware how important is general culture to 
the welfare of a state in war or peace; how it 
reaches out and affects every interest of human 
life, from the day-laborer to the merchant-prince. 
You all understand how the civilized nations are 
establishing systems of education that shall send 
their influences to every child born. You have 
not failed to observe how education subserves 
the cause of religion. 

We can not fail to observe the necessity of 
intellectual culture in a land where the elective 
franchise is so universal. In war, we have seen 
how superior the educated soldier was to the un- 
educated ; in the one case it was science — in the 
other, brute force. In the administration of jus- 
tice, how the world needs culture of mind ! Who 
would not sooner submit his case to the judg- 
ment of twelve educated, intelligent jurymen, 
than to twelve who are not.? Who does not 
know that, in the law-making and law-executing 
powers of a nation, there is more safety where 
there is education than where there is not ? Has 
not every one of us observed that education 



276 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

increases our thrift ? Education extends the 
wants of life. The moment you begin to tinker 
the brain, you set man after something he did 
not need before. The Indian in the forest is sat- 
isfied with a wigwam and a day's provision ; his 
educated brother wants a comfortable house, good 
clothing, variety of food, and plenty of it. 

Educate people, and they want pictures and 
flowers and luxuries ; and they will have them, if 
it is possible. Give men culture, and their wants 
increase ; and this increase opens up new in- 
dustries, and gives employment to millions, and 
calls forth the resources of the world. Educate 
men, and it abates superstition, increases faith, 
stimulates the active energies of a people ; so 
that the greatness of a nation is not its square 
miles, nor its gold — but its men. 

" What constitutes a state ? 
Not high-raised battlements, or labored mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; 

Nor bays and broad-armed ports, 
"Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 

Nor starred and spangled courts, 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No ! men, high-minded men ; 

Men who their duty know, 
But know their rights ; and, knowing, dare maintain ; 

Prevent the long-aimed blow, 
And crush the tyrant when they burst the chain, — 
These constitute a state !" 



THINKING AND GROWING. 277 

Every young man owes it to himself to seek 
the highest degree of intellectual culture. God 
has given you mental powers to be used. Every 
man owes it to his age, his race, his country, to 
seek knowledge — to be as highly educated as 
possible, and thus to be able to do more for 
mankind ; for education augments our usefulness. 
Education puts additional power into the hands 
of the immoral man ; but that is no argument 
against culture, for it gives the same power for 
good to its possessor. 

"That the soul be without knowledge, it is not 
good." The mind employed in seeking after the 
truth, intent upon it, has thrown around it a 
guard against evil. Two distinct motives are 
not likely to actuate the soul at the same time ; 
nor twb distinct classes of thought to be each 
loved at the same moment ; hence, the edu- 
cating process promotes virtue. Such is its 
tendency. The happiness, the efficiency, the 
true progress of all, is intimately connected with 
education. 

Let no young man plead either a want of 
time or lack of opportunity. They have both. 
There are but few who can not save up two 
hours a day for getting an education, or for the 
acquisition of knowledge. 

But you must not spend your time in loitering 



278 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

about the public places. You must not squander 
your precious hours, waste your golden mo- 
ments, over.;the billiard-table. You must not be 
idle; you must work; you must be systematic 
in doing what may fall to your lot in life. And 
then, if true to self, and in earnest, you are sure 
to win the prize. 

Given a good mind, "mens sana in corpore 
sano " — a healthy mind in a healthy body — with 
a universe before it inviting thought ; and the 
result should be the uplifting of the soul, its ex- 
pansion into glorious power; an educated mind, 
fitted to fill any place on earth. 

And all this rests upon you as a solemn relig- 
ious duty. You owe your powers to God, who 
made you ; they can never die. You must either 
dwell in light, or sink into darkness. To know, 
is the grandest privilege ; sanctified knowledge 
makes its possessor godlike. The joys or sor- 
rows of eternity will bear some impress from the 
hand of time. " If any of you lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, 
and upbraideth not : and it shall be given him." 

Solomon prayed : " Give, therefore, thy servant 
an understanding heart to judge thy people, that 
I may discern between good and bad : for who is 
able to judge this thy so great people.-*" 

And God said unto him : " Because thou hast 



THINKING AND GROWING. 279 

asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself 
long life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor 
hast asked for the life of thine enemies, but hast 
asked for thyself understanding to discern judg- 
ment : behold ! I have done according to thy word. 
Lo ! I have given thee a wise and an understand- 
ing heart, so there was none like thee before thee ; 
neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee." 
His was a wise choice. * 

This world's fortunes are fickle ; money may be 
gained by toil and care ; fame may be acquired ; 
ease may be obtained, and all these ; but the 
couch of repose may, in one night, be exchanged 
for one of pain. Some hand may in one hour 
blot your nariie from the scroll of fame ; and the 
sweeping flood or raging flame may, in a day, 
overturn the labor of years. But there are treas- 
ures secure against any stroke of fate. The 
consciousness of right in your breast is as im- 
perishable as God, and bids defiance alike to 
raging storms and sweeping flames. True knowl- 
edge is a possession above the worth of rubies. 
Royalty itself puts no chaplet on human brow so 
rich and beautiful as that which crowns the 
thinker. There is no victory which man may 
achieve, like the victory of the soul. There is no 
path ever trod by mortals, whose sides are so 
flanked with flowers of beauty as the "King's 



280 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

highway of holiness." There are no heights 
on which the soul may ascend, like those delec- 
table mountains of true " wisdom " whose sum- 
mits touch the throne of God, and are lost to 
human sight in the world invisible. There is no 
toil so sweet as that of the brain ; no rest so re- 
freshing as the rest of the soul ; nothing so sure 
as heaven. 

" We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts,- not breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
We should count time by heart-throbs : he lives most 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 




CHAPTER XV. 

''^ He was not lorn to shame: 
Upon his brow shatne is ashamed to sit; 
For "'tis a throne where honor may be crowned 
Sole monarch of the universal earth,'''' 




E may draw a line around any commu- 
nity of even a few thousand persons, 
and know that in that population there 
is to be found every grade known to society. In 
the city of New York, and in other great cities, 
you have only to step from the flag-stone pave- 
ment, from under walls which inclose vast treas- 
ures, and go for a few paces to the right or left, to 
find yourself in the midst of the most degraded 
and poverty-stricken of mankind. And so it is 
every-where. Every community has its rich men 
and its poor. An amount sufficient to make one 
rich, however, in a country village, would not 
make even decent poverty in a great city. In 

281 



282 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

great cities are found greater extremes in society, 
greater riches, and more abject poverty. As we 
have met, in our Summer drives, all classes, we 
have been led to think of humanity more. Evi- 
dently the way to know all about the world, is to 
mingle with it. We have gone by the place 
where all the surroundings told of a superior 
culture. The house is often small, but then it 
bears evidence of taste. The flowers in the door- 
yard, the snow-white curtains in the small win- 
dow, all tell their tale. Then, we have passed 
by other places where no taste was displayed ; 
but, on the contrary, where its absence was indi- 
cated at every point, in every thing. Door-yards 
filthy, fences dilapidated, and all the surroundings 
forbidding in appearance. Even so do people 
differ in their interor lives. Christianity dwells in 
one house, infidelity in the other. Devout piety 
sings and prays under one roof, and profanity is 
uttered under the other. Here are families who 
dwell in the sweet peace of domestic life, and 
yonder are those who live in discord. O, what 
a medley one meets ! 

But what is to be the end of all this ? Shall 
the world go on thus, and never change .'^ There 
is something so wonderful in human nature, that, 
were the Scriptures even silent on the subject, 
we should predict some glorious end for mankind 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 283 

in the future. The day may be distant, but still 
it will come, when society will be very different 
from what it now is. 

The human mind is truly the most wonderful 
creation. The power in us to generalize great 
truths, and establish laws ; the power which we 
have of analyzing compound substances and re- 
solving them into their elements ; the powers of 
synthesis, in which we take the elements and re- 
combine them into their myriad forms ; the power 
of abstraction, by which the mind can concen- 
trate itself upon a single quality or proposition, 
and be uninfluenced by the outward world ; the 
power to reason out, through tedious processes, 
great truths in science, in law, in philosophy ; 
the power to examine objects millions of miles 
distant from us, and ascertain the conditions of 
their being, and the uses which they subserve in 
the universe ; in a word, the power to think, is a 
wonderful power — the greatest power conceivable. 

There is no depth in space which the mind 
of man can not fathom. There are points so 
distant, that a ray of light, which traverses space 
at the rate of nearly two hundred thousand miles 
in a second, would consume some hundreds, if 
not thousands, of years in reaching us. Go, and 
cast your eyes up into the heavens, and behold 
that beautiful star twinkling in its azure depths. 



284 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

and know that the light that touches your eye 
started on its errand while Adam and Eve were 
walking lovingly amid the ambrosial beauties of 
Eden. Through all these thousands of years, it 
has been flying toward you, and has only just 
arrived. These thoughts give us some impression 
of space — distance. 

But there is another way to see the wonderful 
things of God ; that is, in his oldest book, the 
Bible of nature. We do not wish here to dis- 
cuss the question of the age of the human race, 
whether it is six thousand or more years old ; only 
to say that the human race is of quite recent or- 
igin, in a comparative view. But of the globe 
itself — the substance of the earth — it is old 
beyond our comprehension. 

As one goes down in the series composing the 
earth's stratification, and sees how the world was 
built up ; how miles of solid rocks were formed 
by the constant deposition of the sediment from 
muddy water ; how the earth has grown by the 
conversion of invisible gases, which float in space, 
into solids, — there comes over the mind some 
conception of time, which dates back to a period 
so remote as to seem like an eternity in itself. 
Time and space are worlds in which the human 
mind may revel in the highest delight 

But there is another field for thought even still 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 285 

more glorious ; and that is thought itself, or mind, 
or spirit life. Man — what a study he is to him- 
self! It has been said, you know, "The proper 
study of mankind is man." By man, now, we 
mean all there is in man — his inner being, his 
mind, will, conscience ; his history, his future ; 
and, especially, tho, possibilities of humanity. 

The human soul is deeper than the ocean. It 
requires a longer line to sound it than it does to 
measure the distance between the crest of the 
wave and "the unfathomable gulf where all is 
still." 

The soul rises higher than the mountain-peaks 
which cleave the sky, higher than the region of 
the stars even. Its altitude is infinite. 

What are the possibilities of humanity } What 
is there in this world of thinking men yet to be 
developed .? "It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be." There is a destiny of greatness and 
grandeur which we yet do not see nor compre- 
hend — a greatness which is to come through the 
Gospel of Christ. 

There certainly will not come on this stage 
any other being superior to man. There was a 
time when man was not in existence. The earth 
was peopled with living beings, but of an order 
without reason. 

Man, then, came with a fleshly nature, which 



286 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

he had in common with all animals ; but there 
was superadded thereto spiritual life, mind-power, 
and this at once designated him as the comple- 
tion of the world's races. " Last of all, he made 
man also." 

But men ask, May not some new being be in 
some way developed out of this great mass of 
humanity ? We think not ; and for the reason 
that there is no place for any such creation. 
Man is fully competent to the world's govern- 
ment. He is fully competent to the understand- 
ing of all the regulative laws of the earth. He 
is a sufficient reflection of the mental and spir- 
itual. He is the end to which all types in the 
creative scheme point; and, therefore, he is the 
highest, and will always be the most glorious, 
being on the face of the globe. 

We may say, then, that while no other being 
will come upon the stage of this world's action, 
yet society, which is made up of individual mem- 
bers, will be so much improved as to make man 
essentially a new being. So that when we ask. 
What are the possibilities of human nature } 
we have entered a field for reflection which 
opens out to an unlimited extent. We can easily 
discern the fact, as we look out over the world, 
that there are two distinct grades in human 
society. In all that which goes to constitute 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 287 

human nature, they are one; the elements are 
the same. But, viewing them even casually, we 
see that there is a marked division. That line 
of separation does not touch the nature of man 
so much as the degree of his cultivation. 

The one class has undergone a process of re- 
fining, the other is crude. The one is surrounded 
with wealth and the luxuries which wealth may 
procure, the other treads the walks of poverty. 
Nor is this division one which separates the 
human family into Christian and heathen. No. 
In heathen lands there are rich and poor, high 
and low. One might suppose, were the facts not 
so patent, that in Christian lands there would be 
no such broad distinction ; but it is not so. Un- 
der the very shadows of our temples of religion, 
the rich often grow richer, and the poor become 
poorer. But this is not the fault of Christianity, 
nor the reproach of the rich altogether. The 
fault lies in another direction. 

The question of culture is one we need to con- 
sider. We sometimes think we have laid too 
much stress upon grace. The Church has said 
to men. Only be religious, only be good at heart, 
and all will be well. Now this, we know, is the 
main thing. " Seek ye first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, and all things else shall 
be added unto you." So said the great Teacher. 



288 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

Holiness is the first thing to be sought, truly. 
But, then, do we believe that, if a man expe- 
riences religion, he will never need to do any 
more ? Does God rain down barrels of flour, and 
roll them into the pantries of his saints } Does 
God send trees walking into the door-yards of 
his children, where they crumble into stove- 
wood } No. If a converted man wants a barrel 
of flour, he must earn money and buy it. If he 
wants fuel, he must go into the market and pur- 
chase it, and saw it into proper lengths, just like 
any other man. 

A Christian should seek the highest form of 
culture, as well as the converting grace of God. 
A Christian is the highest style of man. A cul- 
tivated Christian may not get to heaven any 
more certainly than one who is not, or be any 
happier when he is there ; but it is a conviction 
we feel, that Sir Isaac Newton will be a brighter 
spirit in heaven than a converted Indian chief. 
Christianity means culture. A Christian should 
hzow the most, as well as be the desL 

Now, in reference to the possibilities of human 
nature, let us consider this point as illustrative 
of what we say. We have all seen some very 
lovely specimens of Christianity, even among 
poor people — ay, the very poorest. They were 
intelligent, industrious, generous, kindly affec- 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 289 

tioned, honest, and beloved of all. The world has 
very many of such people in it. We have ob- 
served others just the reverse of these — ignorant, 
vicious, idle, evil-disposed, the embodiment of all 
that is vile in human kind. Now, the Gospel 
supposes it possible to take these last-named, and 
convert them, by grace and the culture which 
grace implies, over into such as we have before 
described. If it is a possibility in one case, it is 
in another. If one community may be morally 
revolutionized, so may other communities. If 
one family can be brought up from the deep deg- 
radation of sin, so may all families. If all are 
not brought up to the same level of refinement, 
the difference will be based upon constitutional 
defects which only many generations can over- 
come. But grace in the heart has a wonderful 
influence on the condition of humanity in its 
development. 

There is, unquestionably, a new age before the 
world physically, as well as mentally and morally. 
It must be so. Take mankind, now, in the light 
of physical beings. Can we believe that God is 
pleased with the diseased, deformed, depressed 
condition of more than three-fourths of the whole 
human race ? Does any one believe that infi- 
nite love delights in bodily weakness, in bleared 
eyes, contracted chests, depressed skulls, dwarfed 
19 



290 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

stature, and marred physiognonnes ? He did not 
make us so. He intended man to be upright, 
standing erect, with a manly brow and a noble 
mien, with large brain and expanded chest — 
strong, beautiful, grand. 

Sin has thwarted this plan, and has cast the 
whole race down ; and we are diseased and de- 
formed and wretched, as a consequence. Crime 
has been the physical, as well as moral, curse of 
humanity. The iniquities of the fathers have 
thus been visited upon their children unto the 
third and fourth generations ; and it is not 
visited in any other way upon the children 
of men. 

The redemption of the race is of a twofold 
kind : First, the salvation of the soul of every 
individual, as a possibility; secondly, a salvation, 
that shall work out a change in the bodily and 
social condition of mankind, universally. There 
must be an uplifting of men from their degrada- 
tion. The Christian Church has a mission to 
the hovels, the cellars, the garrets. 

But what force can be best relied on in this 
work .? You say, educate men. Yes : but there 
is a choice in the methods of the world's educa- 
tion. The block of -granite, as it lies with its 
ponderous bulk upon the earth, can be raised by 
the lever ; but we must have a fulcrum, and we 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 29I 

must in some way get the point of the lever 
under it. 

Education will do it. It will change any fam- 
ily to educate them. But how are we going to 
get hold of the lowest grade of the world's pop- 
ulation ? We answer : Seize first on the world's 
moral convictions ; lay some hand of power on 
the conscience of mankind ; impress them with 
the idea of' God, of their sin, and of the great 
hereafter: and then you can raise them, and not 
before. Hence, education must rest on a relig- 
ious basis. 

The poverty, the disease, the horrid degrada- 
tion, in which such multitudes of the world's 
population lie at this hour, have sin as their 
efficient cause. 

Thinking constitutes the chief difference be- 
tween human beings and the animal race. 
Whenever a man begins to think, he begins to 
rise in the scale of being. The more profound 
the thinking, the more noble the manhood. No 
subject gives the mind such exalted thought as 
those which relate to the questions of eternity. 
The soul — its powers, its destiny — is a study be- 
yond the stars in importance. You touch the 
soul at the point of its highest power, when you 
come to it v/ith words of Divine wisdom. Hence 
it is, after all, that the great reforming and 



292 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

uplifting force in the world is that which is de- 
rived from God — the Church of the Redeemer. 
That Christian teaching exerts on the human 
destiny a wonderful change, is simply a truism. 
Nations are as their religion ; because religion, 
whether it be true or false, lays hold of the 
conscience. 

There are, then, wonderful possibilities in the 
world of humanity. The onward march of Chris- 
tian civilization through the distant future has 
its pledge and its prophecy in what Christ has 
done in the past. But it hath not yet appeared 
what we shall be. A time will come when a 
purer holiness shall be the motto of the whole 
world. A time will come when science shall 
give us powers of which we now scarcely dream. 
The world is in the morning twilight of the great 
scientific day. There will come a time when the 
world will have less of poverty and wretchedness. 
War will be unknown. Prisons will not be con- 
structed to confine within their bolted doors the 
doomed convict ; they will become schools for 
the instruction of those who have become so 
perverted as to commit crime. In this new age 
of the world, there will be fewer hours devoted 
to labor, and more to the study of God's word 
and works. Then, the dingy hut will not be the 
abode of him who was formed in the image and 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 293 

likeness of God. Man will live in the sweet air 
and cheering sunlight of heaven. 

He will eat wholesomer food than now ; for 
his intelligence will direct him with more cer- 
tainty to that which befits him. He will know 
more of the laws of his being, and understand 
better his capacities. Obeying the mandates of 
the Most High, his conscience will be "void of 
offense." He will labor by day with less chafing, 
and rest by night more sweetly ; and his whole 
being will be more harmonious. Thus he will 
be a grander being than the man of the world's 
history through all the past. 

But, we hear you say, this is a dream — an im- 
possible reality. Let us only point you to the 
fact that there is a possible improvement in our 
race, as the race has abundantly demonstrated. 
What is the difference between the denizen of 
the " Five Points " and the occupant of the 
splendid coach which rolls down Fifth Avenue, 
in New York City.-^ There is a very manifest 
unlikeness. We answer, cultivation. What was 
the difference between Daniel Webster and the 
man who rowed his boats and cleaned his shoes } 
Cultivation — cultivation of blood. Blood tells in 
this world, say what you will. 

And nothing is more true in human philosophy 
than that, under the right kind of education — 



294 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

that which takes hold of the whole being, mold- 
ing into a divine beauty the heart life, stimulating 
as with an electric touch the intellectual life, 
reaching and affecting the bodily life — this groan- 
ing, enfeebled, perverted manhood may grow up 
into a sort of " blood-royal ;" and the future 
races, or race — for all are to be "one in Christ" — 
who shall grow out of the present, shall be like 
the giant oak of the forest as compared with the 
dwarf of its own species, whose stunted growth 
tells of some awful blight which has rested on 
germ or soil. 

But what are the agencies employed to effect 
this change ? First, there is an inherent power 
in man himself — in mind itself. It is said a 
forest was once hid in an acorn. There is power 
in a few pounds of water, which an ox can drink 
or a child spill, if developed and confined under 
certain conditions, to blow up a steamboat ; yet 
we can not see it, nor feel it. There is in hu- 
manity a power ever at work. The mind strug- 
gles up like the grass in Spring-time, as it seeks 
the sun. With all this load of sin and of misery 
which the world has borne on its shoulders, 
with all the disabilities of our nature — and they 
are numerous — yet how much the world has 
gained ! Look back and see. Then, there is a 
power in the action of mind upon mind. The 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 295 

ignorant learn from the wise, the educated. The 
unlettered slave overheard the conversation of 
his master while he served him, and grew won- 
derfully wise. 

Then^ there is the rivalry of mind. The learn- 
ings of some provokes others to seek wisdom and 
knowledge ; for, what one can do, another can 
at least try to do, and with probable success. 
Besides the education men gain from contact 
with the world, in which facts share so large a 
part, we read lectures in stones, and see revela- 
tions in stars, and hear songs in winds and ser- 
mons in waves. 

Under all these influences, what is the possi- 
ble destiny of our race on this globe ^ Who can 
tell ^ Who dares prescribe a limit to this all- 
mastering human power, this mind-power.? What 
shall be our destiny when all the forces of nature 
are brought into subjection, and man is en- 
throned as dictator over the empire of universal 
world-force ? What shall be the destiny of man- 
kind when all the treasures of earth are laid open 
to their embrace and use .'' What may be said 
of him when the clouds, that veil the now hid- 
den truths, are all lifted, and the sun, that shall 
know no setting, shall rise upon his intellect and 
heart } Ah, " it doth not yet appear what he 
shall be !" 



296 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

But, in addition to this inherent energy in 
man, there are other forces at work for his ele- 
vation ; and these are of God. We are very much 
like children who are learning to walk. We put 
forth what energy we have ; but then God's hand 
is reached down to aid us. We hold him by the 
fingers, and will not fall ; he leads us. 

The ultimate outlook is grand. There is a 
vision of beauty lying just over there in the 
future. The world will yet see a diseased race 
cured of its maladies ; a deformed race restored 
to its primal loveliness ; a race of slaves emanci- 
pated from every shackle ; a race on which had 
settled in awful night the mental and spiritual 
darkness of the soul, shining in the brightness of 
spiritual glory ; sin, whose darts had sunk into 
the soul, poisoning its fountains and blighting its 
hopes, driven away ; the tear on the cheek of sor- 
row crystallized into a diamond of joy; a poor 
race made rich in wealth that shall not perish. 
Such are the hopes of men, and such are the 
promises of God in the good time coming, in the 
world's new age. It shall not be said by one to 
another, " Honor the Lord ;*' for all shall know 
him, from the least unto the greatest. 

O, while poverty pinches, and ignorance in- 
thralls, and vice stings those who are ours in 
kin — bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh — we who 



THE POSSIBLE MAN. 297 

can, should do something to redeem the world ! 
And as no force, they say, can be destroyed, 
but all is conserved and in some way correlated, 
so that not one good deed is lost, — not a teacher 
in the school-room teaches in vain, not a kind 
word is uttered in vain, not a smile exists but is 
caught in God's camera, fixed indelibly on some 
page in heaven's gallery, and all our deeds of 
goodness are laid up in the archives of heaven. 
We will' meet them by and by, as, from eternal 
habitations, we read the history of our earth-lives. 
Reader, what can you do to hasten on the re- 
demption of the world ? What can you do to 
help some poor child of darkness out into light? 
Pity the destitute of this world, but pity more 
the morally benighted. They may not ask your 
aid, they may even spurn it ; but still, pluck them 
as brands from the burning, and they will be 
bright jewels in your crown. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



f aat«a g 



ejjxe;^. 




''Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found ; 
Noiv green in youth, now withering on the ground. 
Another race the follozving Spring supplies ; 
They fall successive, and successive rise. 
So generations, in their course, decay ; 
So flourish these, when those have passed away.'''' 



HE long, warm Summer is past, and the 
solemn days — days of the *'sere and yel- 
low leaf" — have come. How many a 



sweet hour we have spent during these Summer 
days ! 

The Black Horse and Carryall started upon 
their rambles when the grass was green and the 
trees were just putting forth their buds. We 
have watched the beautiful unfoldings of Sum- 
mer. We have seen the grain . grow tall and 
ripen under the influence of sunshine and shower. 
We have seen the blossoms fall from the apple- 
trees, and the fruit form and ripen. We have 
298 



FADING LEAVES. 299 

seen the reaper and mower swiftly cutting the 
grass and grain for the use of man and beast. 
Now the Autumn fruits are being gathered. 
Wagons go creaking along the dusty highway, 
laden with the golden fruits of the season. Now 
the forests are shedding their coats, covering the 
earth with crimson and gold ; and the fields are 
yielding their treasures as a reward to the hard- 
handed farmer, to be an equivalent of gold in 
his barn and granary. Summer has blushed and 
bloomed; now Autumn breezes sigh plaintively 
through the half-naked branches of the trees. O, 
there is a look of mournful beauty in the rich 
Autumn landscape, as it stretches away before 
us ! We love Autumn ; the air is so bracing, the 
roads so smooth, the farmers' boys so happy, and 
every thing is so mellow ! It has been a Summer 
well spent. We have been so near to nature, 
seen and conversed with so many people, seen 
so much of all sides of life. We have been to 
weddings, picnics, and funerals; and sometimes 
to all in one day. We have seen wealth and 
poverty ; we have shaken hands with the strong 
and healthy, and have held in ours the cold and 
feeble hand of the sick. We have gone to one 
house to congratulate those upon whom fortune 
has smiled, and then to others to offer our words 
of condolence. 



300 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

" Speak gently : 'tis a little thing 

Dropped in the heart's deep well ; 
Xii€ good, the joy that it may bring, 
Eternity shall tell." 

Rut the Summer is over ; the blossoms are not ; 
the birds are turning southward ; the days are 
cooler and shorter. Soon the earth will be man- 
tled in her snowy sheet ; and we shall be shut up 
within doors, to work and wait for the coming of 
Summer again. 

If we had never seen an Autumn ; if our eyes 
had always viewed the world as Summer presents 
it to our sight, with dense foliage, with deep rich 
verdure, with breezes laden with the sweetest 
aroma, with songs of birds, and this universal 
life, and if there should have crept over the 
beautiful face of nature these signs of decay ; 
if gradually the songs of birds had died away 
into distant murmurs, and then ceased ; if the 
grand oak, whose rugged boughs had held up the 
deep foliage, as if to shield the sweltering herd 
from the intense rays of a Summer sun, were 
seen turning into dark russet ; if the vine, which 
clambers the sides of the oak, all the long Sum- 
mer flaunting her green leaves over the mossy 
trunk, were suddenly changed into a festoon of 
deepest crimson ; if the maple should suddenly 
lift its arms, all draped in carnation and orange ; 
if the hickory, tall and graceful as our ideal queen> 



FADING LEAVES. 3OI 

should be transformed into gold, and if, at every 
step, we tramped beneath our foot the crisped 
leaf, and every-where should see the deadened 
stalk, the gray meadow, and the dust-covered 
hill-slope ; if, instead of the playful breezes, there 
should come the sharp whistling winds — instead 
of the calm Summer sky, the cloudy heavens 
threatening our very peace with their darkness ; 
if thus, for the first time in our life, we had wit- 
nessed the change from Summer to Autumn as 
we witness it now, — what would be the emotions 
which would rise in our hearts ! What sad 
forebodings of our world's destiny would these 
changes mark ! 

But our eyes have become used to the scenes 
of an Autumn change. And when the Summer 
bids us adieu, leaving her cast-off garments to be 
driven by the winds at their will — to rot on the 
ground, and bank themselves in each nook and 
corner — we adjust ourselves to the new conditions 
of nature ; our eyes turn and look for the coming 
snow, the naked forest, the ice-covered creek, the 
white bank of frozen earth ; and we draw our- 
selves within our dwellings, to sit by our cheerful 
fires, and while away the fleeting hours in the 
sacred social endearments of life. 

The fading leaf, the richly-colored leaf, as it 
hangs on the branch of the tree where it grew 



302 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

and fluttered in the Summer winds ; the faded 
leaf, as it drops from the branch upon the ground 
beneath, and lies pensively there in the Autumn 
days, — is indeed not only the beautiful " banner 
of Autumn," but it is an expressive symbol of 
every man's life. 

Our lives have in them almost as distinctly 
marked periods as the rolling year measured by 
the sun's relative oscillation across the zodiac. 
There is the Spring-time, when the soul of the 
child is jubilant; when the spirit soars on wings 
of fancy, and climbs high on the ladder of mortal 
hope ; when it sings its song of beauty, and fills 
the air with its music. Then, there is the Sum- 
mer-time of our manhood and womanhood, when 
the body is matured in its strength, and the mind 
matured in judgment ; the time of work and the 
time of reward, by gathering in the results of 
toil in the accumulation of wealth ; the time of 
pleasure, when all the powers of being are in fullest 
exercise, when we are happy only by activity 
which has no limit but that of our natural powers. 

Then, there comes the Autumn of life ; the pe- 
riod of decline, when the faculties begin to wane, 
when the theme of our song is changed, when 
age is creeping on apace — the voice more tremu- 
lous, the step less quick, the frame less robust ; 
the time of reflection and consciousness. 



FADING LEAVES. 303 

Then, there comes the wintery time in life, when 
the snows are on the ground — the silvery locks, 
the trembling hand, the dim eye, the benumbed 
sense, the slow and measured pace, the tottering 
step, the deaf ear, all are signs of the "change 
that Cometh ;" the time when man draws himself 
within doors to spend the hours in quiet medita- 
tion, waiting for the angel of release — angel of 
the better life. 

Childhood is the flowering-time, the gushing 
out of life. Summer, with its fullness, complete- 
ness, and beauty, is a fitting type of our man- 
hood. Autumn, with its sere leaf, is the express- 
ive type of declining maturity ; while Winter and 
age are correlated ideas in our minds. 

With what poetic grandeur ^does Solomon de- 
scribe age : " In the day when the keepers of 
the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall 
bow themselves, and the grinders cease because 
they are few, and those that look out of the win- 
dows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut 
in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is 
low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, 
and- all the daughters of music shall be brought 
low ; also, when they shall be afraid of that 
which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and 
the almond-tree shall flourish, and the grass- 
hopper shall be a burden, and. desire shall fail: 



304 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

because man goeth to his long home, and the 
mourners go about the streets : or ever the silver 
cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or 
the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the 
wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust 
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall 
return unto God who gave it." 

There is a sense in which every one of us is 
like a leaf; not in the fading, but in the develop- 
ment and growth of the leaf A tree or shrub 
on which is seen no leaf, is usually deemed dead. 
The leafless oak of the hill-side, as it spreads its 
naked arms to the Summer winds, tells us that 
the vitals have been broken by the tooth of the 
destroying worm, or stroke of the woodman's ax. 
The leaf, then, is the badge of life. Where it 
grows and hangs through the long Summer, we 
know there is health and vigor. 

The leaf is, in itself, quite insignificant, as it 
hangs pendant from the quivering branch ; and yet 
though produced by the growing tree itself, reacts 
upon the tree and causes its growth. Leaves are 
the lungs of vegetation through which the forests 
and gardens breathe. They drink in the poison 
of the air, which, to them, is most delicious food ; 
and send forth to man and beast the oxygen, 
without which every animal would perish. 

A single leaf, as you carelessly pluck it from 



FADING LEAVES. 305 

the drooping bough by the way-side, seems of but 
trifling value ; for God has made them in such 
profusion. The forests, however, which stretch 
away to such a vast extent, are made up of them ; 
the dense wood, where the shadows are so deep 
as to defy the penetration of the sun-ray, is but 
the aggregation of single leaves. That shade- 
tree which stands in your door-yard, and under 
whose rich foliage you have spent so many an 
hour during this long and sultry Summer, owes 
its beauty and its utility to the leaves which, 
uniting, have cast their shadows upon you. 

May we not learn a lesson from the leaf.^ 
What is society but the aggregate of individuals ? 
Is society beautiful ? It is the beauty of united, 
banded men and women. One leaf may fall on 
the damp earth, and not be missed from the over- 
hanging boughs. So one of us may droop and 
die, and yet not be missed by the great world. 

This combination of leaves makes the shadow 
where man and beast seek retirement from the 
burning ray of an August sun ; but each leaf has 
its mission, its place, its duty. Every man has 
his mission, his place, his duty to do, his respon- 
sibility to bear. As the leaf extracts the poison 
from the air, so should every man do his part in 
destroying the poison of human life. There are 
wounds into which you can pour oil. There are 



306 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

eyes, used to weeping, from which you can wipe 
the burning tear. There are hearts, ready to 
burst, on which you can lay the soothing hand. 
There are feet, sore with the hard and graveled 
road over which they have been treading, which 
you can bind up. There are throbbing, heaving 
bosoms, which can be calmed into rest by words 
which you can speak. O, we need but to do the 
little good we can, to fulfill our mission ! Be like 
the leaf on the tree: serve the Summer day, then 
fall to the ground .; for man is like 

"The snow-falls on the rrver — 
A moment white, then gone forever." 

Our little, added to the littles which others 
can do, will swell into a mighty aggregate of 
hum.an good. The silent look of pity, the ex- 
tended hand of friendship, the gentle word of 
love, will be as a charm to the soul of man — an 
unction which will abate the gangrene of the 
morbid soul, and send it back into joyful life 
once more. 

" 'T is a little thing 
To give a cup of water ; yet it§ draught 
Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, 
May send a shock of pleasure to the soul 
More exquisite than when nectarean juice 
Renews the life of joy in happiest hours. 
'T is a little thing to speak some common word 
Of comfort, which hath almost lost its use ; 
Yet on the ear of him who thought to die 
Unmourned, 't will fall like choicest music." 



FADING LEAVES. 307 

The leaf not only extracts the poison from the 
air, but it sends forth a stream of health. Our 
mission is not alone to heal wounds, and wipe 
tears away, and help bear burdens ; but it is to 
make the world substantially better. Not to re- 
lieve suffering, simply ; but to remove the cause 
of human woe, to infuse a new life, to make the 
weak stronger, the ignorant wiser, the fettered 
free. Not only to emancipate the slave, but to 
put him on the throne of a true and noble man- 
hood. As the leaf purifies the atmosphere and 
makes it more health-giving, so must we breathe 
the air of life into others. 

The leaf, as it falls in mellow loveliness to the 
ground, is the image of beauty, the golden or 
crimson badge of completeness, maturity. That 
leaf is not needed now ; for the sun has receded 
to the South, and the deep shadow is no longer 
sought by the sweltering herd. The tree has 
finished its fruitage, and the harvest-time is over. 
The leaf has not been sered and yellowed by the 
frost, as many believe, but is simply ripened ; 
though the frost may have hurried on the process. 

What is our life but an activity, crowned with 
ripened age, or at least maturity .? We are not 
born simply to breathe so many times, to sleep 
so many nights, and eat and drink to our own 
satisfaction ; not born into the world simply to 



308 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

be, but we are born to do. Life is a pressure, a 
great putting forth of ourselves, projecting our- 
selves into others, making them feel our power, 
blessing mankind by shielding them in time of 
trouble. This is a ripening process. They who 
fall in the faded beauty of ripened manhood and 
womanhood, and lie in the dust of the ground, 
as the leaf lies upon the sidewalks, are as beau- 
tiful as the leaf, which, though now useful, was 
never so lovely as in death. Look at the bright 
crimson or golden leaf, and tell us, is it not the 
very picture of loveliness } 

Israel's sweet singer said, " Precious in the 
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." 
O, this ripened, this completed manhood! There 
is an aroma of heaven in the breath of the better 
land ; a cadence mournful, yet lovely, in the mur- 
murs of the river, to whose brink this ripened 
and beautiful manhood or womanhood comes. 

Is not the beautiful leaf, then, a striking pic- 
ture, a true lesson of our life — marking the steps 
from prattling infancy to hoary age .-* 

We have a tendency to shrink back from age. 
Why is it we dread this growing old } Does the 
corn dread the heat that ripens it, and bid it de- 
lay its coming } Does the vine shy off from the 
season that ripens the clusters of luscious grapes.? 
Does the tree of the forest seek a deeper and 



FADING LEAVES. 3O9 

cooler depth in the tangled wild-wood, that it 
may lift its crown of verdure into the very snows 
of Winter ? Would it not be a strange sight, to 
see the green leaf quivering in the Winter's 
breeze ! Dread growing old ! when age is the 
ripened life of man ; and when the doors of 
the city of God are opening to give the soul an 
eternal home. Dread growing old ! when age is 
so lovely. 

We know these departing years write their 
wrinkles on the brow of mortals. Time's hand 
is heavy, and under its pressure the strongest 
man must sink earthward. The life and vigor 
of youth die out as the leaf fades. All this life 
must pass away. The flush of youth and the 
strength of manhood, like the blossoms of Sum- 
mer, go away forever. Others come upon the 
stage ; but these come back never. The totter- 
ing footstep, the dim eye, the silvery lock, are 
inevitably born of time ; and are indices which 
point to the grave, and tell of immortality. But, 
still, there is something in old age as lovely as 
the drooping, mellow Autumn of a rich and 
glorious Summer. 

The old man is majestic. In him is something 
heavenly ; for he stands on the boundary-line 
between two worlds. Nature in him has achieved 
her mission ; and, when the sun of life is about 



310 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. - 

to set, she comes to load him with her fruits — 
fruits of a rich experience, of matured wisdom. 
Old age is the fruit-gathering time of life. Happy 
is such a man or woman, thus rocked to sleep — 
the last long sleep of earth — by the loving hands 
of children's children. 

The fading, falling leaf carpets the earth for 
the "Indian Summer." So old age is the Indian 
Summer of life. How lovely are the bright and 
jeweled Autumn days — days of hazy, mellow 
beauty — when we seem to live on some enchanted 
island midway between this world and the next ! 
And such is our life — an enchanted island, where 
we live and learn and feel, ever looking for some 
hidden treasure, ever waiting for some opening 
door-way, or some crevice in the shattered wall, 
through which floods of light shall break on the 
soul, and bathe it in love. 

Old age is the transition period of human life, 
when the pictures of life below begin to dis- 
solve into the pictures of the life man is to live 
above ; when the mortal grows toward the im- 
mortal, and becomes it ; when the music of 
earth begins to lose its charms of softness and 
of beauty, and the soul catches the whispering 
melodies of the better land. Earth, with its 
beauty, its love, and its charms, recedes from 
the vision of the soul ; but heaven draws 



FADING LEAVES. 311 

near, with its wealth of love and beauty and 
immortality. 

The leaf which has fallen to the earth is not 
lost ; there is a richness stored within it which 
creates other leaves. The rich mold of the 
forest is but the accumulated matter of the 
foliage which bloomed, faded, fell, in the ages 
gone by. 

We, too, are leaves, going down into dust. O, 
the very earth is made richer by the ashes of the 
sainted dead ! The dust of our departed is holy ; 
the spot where they sleep is one of the most 
sacred places to us. 

The leaf, decayed, reproduces itself in the liv- 
ing leaf again. So the good of all the ages are 
speaking to the living. The tomb can not hold 
from the sight and hearing of the living, the 
deeds and words of the dead. There is an im- 
mortality in moral worth which survives the 
stroke of death. Men die, and turn to dust, but 
their names live. They, being dead, yet speak. 

"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
may rest from their labors ; and their works do 
follow them." 

We read in these fading leaves a lesson of 
immortality. These trees, dismantled of their 
foliage, are not dead. They will seem as if dead ; 



312 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

the branches will be swayed in the wintery winds ; 
they will show no sign of life. The earth will 
harden at their roots ; the sap will congeal be- 
neath the bark ; and where, all the Summer long, 
we have feasted on the beauty of nature, nothing 
but apparent death will greet our eyes. But we 
know that these branches will bud and blossom 
again. "For there is hope of a tree if it be cut 
down, that it will sprout again, and that the ten- 
der branch thereof will not cease: though the 
root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stalk 
thereof die in the ground ; yet through the scent 
of water, it will bud and bring forth boughs like 
a plant." 

"We all do fade as a leaf;" but we shall live 
again. The power which will enrobe these fields 
and forests in their garments of beauty in Spring- 
time — the strange force whose exercise will re- 
leaf and re-blossom all these trees and shrubs — 
can in some mysterious way reclothe our spirits 
in immortal bodies. 

" Still seems it strange that thou shouldst live forever ? 
Is it less strange that thou shouldst live at all ? 
This is a miracle, and that no more. 
Who gave beginning, can exclude an end. 
Deny thou art, then doubt if thou shalt be." 

"We all do fade as a leaf" — "^//." You can 
say to yourself: "I am fading ; my race will soon 



FADING LEAVES. 313 

be run ; my work, like that of the hireling, will 
soon be accomplished ;" 

"My days are gliding swiftly by." 

There is your wife ; she is fading away like the 
leaf, and will soon be gone. Your child, young 
and healthy and beautiful, is subject to the same 
decay. Your dearest friend, the most cherished, 
is fading. We are all passing away — fading, 
fading ! 

Take from us this one cherished hope of the 
life which is to come, and what a somber world 
this would be! 

*' Our better nature pineth — let it be ! 
Thou human soul, earth is no home for thee : 
Thy starry rest is in eternity !" 

But immortal life is ours. Our dear friends 
die to live in a deathless land ; and we shall 
meet again, mingle again in sweetest communion, 
in the sweet " by and by." 

We are living to-day, full of hope, quivering 
with life ; but to-morrow the hectic flush may be 
on the cheek, 

" Like the unnatural red 
Which Autumn paints upon the perished leaf." 

Solemnly the words fall on our ears: "Dust 
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." But 
sweetly come the words, from the same lips: 



314 THE BLACK HORSE AND CARRYALL. 

" 'T is enough ; come up higher." Go, see, in 
the faded leaves of Autumn, the emblems of 
human life. 

" Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 

And stars to set ; but all — 
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death !" 




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